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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
Shelf \W.£0fe» 



Mi' A 

-UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



* 




A president from the land of the Crystal River keeps himself and his Councillors 
level headed by the use of water. 
(Seep. 102) 



THE CRYSTAL RIVER 



TURNED UPON THE 



|)tack fallen jjailroad and jplack latlcg ^otmtrg 



/* TEMPERANCE ALLEGORY. 



By S. W. HANKS, 

AUTHOR OF THE BLACK VALLET RAILROAD TRACT. 



INTRODUCTION 

By ALEXANDER McKENZIE, D. D. 



s 



4st 



|tcfo (Ebitioit* 36 illustrations. 



This book is writ in such, a dialect 

As may the minds of listless men affect. 

It seems a novelty, and yet contains 

Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. 

Truly 'twill make no traveller of thee, 

If by its counsel thou wilt ruled be. 

Bu>*yan. 



lkk>±>J^ 



BOSTON: 
D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, 

FRANKLIN ST., COR. OF HAWLEY. 



/* 



HV5 0<b<3 



COrYIilGHT, 
S . W . HANKS. 
' 1879. 



PREFACE. 



This book has grown out of the tract called " The Black 
Valley Road ; " more than three millions of which have been 
called for since its first publication, not including the altered 
forms of it surreptitiously published by the N. Y. Vinegar 
Bitters Co. It was prepared for the benefit of seamen, but 
has been found to be useful among landsmen, as well. The 
allegorical style has been chosen, as best adapted to accom- 
plish the object in view; It has been written with the hope 
of helping to direct attention to the evils of the liquor-traffic ; 
now more terrible than war, pestilence, or famine. The 
author is impressed with the belief, that the Bible, rightly 
understood, and applied by the agencies of the Church, co- 
operating with other instrumentalities, is the most efficient 
weapon to be used in the war against the evil. Those who 
are familiar with the facts, methods, and results of the dram- 
shop business, will have no difficulty in understanding what 
is meant by the Black Valley Country ; while those who have 
paid even slight attention to the symbolic meaning of the 
Bible will see that the water which has swept away the Black 
Valley Road, and irrigated the Black Valley Country, means 
Christian truth, producing spiritual life, with its accom- 
panying moral influences. 

The title of the new edition of the book is chosen as 
being a better indication of its contents, 

S. W. H. 
Cambridge, 1879, 



INTRODUCTORY. 



BY REV. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE, D. D. 

In the use of the allegory there is a very striking and 
impressive method of presenting truth. It is attended with 
obvious difficulties, and demands not a little ingenuity and 
taste. I think it will be felt that the author of this work 
has been successful in his endeavor. The fact that his book 
has been read, and that a new edition is needed, must 
stand as the best proof of his success. 

This is one way of engaging the public attention on a 
subject of the last importance. It has the advantage of 
novelty. The cause is worthy of the utmost variety of 
effort ; and now that the usual arguments in its support 
are so numerous and so frequently repeated, any new form 
of presentation has a special claim on the ground of a spe- 
cial result. It must be a startling word, spoken in a start- 
ling way, which shall gain the ear accustomed to the voice 
of ordinary reasoning and persuasion. In the " line upon 
line,'* these pages have their place, which they easily take 
and easily hold. 

This is, indeed, a bold book. Its language is plain, its 
terms emphatic, its pictures frightful. We hardly like to 
read the list of its names aloud. Yet the facts are more 
frightful. The reality, is far in excess of the work, in all 
that is alarming and terrible. The ride over this road 
js more than is here depicted, more than any words can 
6 



7 Introductory. 

portray. The popular judgment, so far as there is judg- 
ment in the popular feeling, is not very far from unani- 
mous. Few see other than a disastrous end to those who 
glide down these slippery rails. Of the magnitude of the 
evil, there is no question. Men disagree when the dis- 
cussion reaches the way of destroying the evil which de- 
stroys. But those who prefer to try to regulate, rather 
than to try to exterminate, so monstrous a wrong, place in 
the path of those who would carry on this nefarious busi- 
ness, hinderances which men in any other calling would 
pronounce intolerable, to which no other calling would even 
pretend to submit. If the law does not absolutely forbid 
this business, it stamps it with infamy in the regulations and 
restraints it throws about it. 

It may be thought by some that the pictures of this book 
are overdrawn. They are vivid and glaring. But to the 
calm mind, it is doubtful whether they are any more severe 
in their tone and color, than are the statutes and rules 
which surround the business which is here described. It 
is true that many persons who start on this Railroad do 
not reach the end of it. The book says that. But accidents 
upon any road are scarcely less terrible because some trav- 
ellers are not harmed. We count the wounded and the 
dead, not the living and moving, when a guilty bridge, or a 
wicked switch, has wrecked a train. If many drink and 
do not become drunkards, many do become drunkards ; 
many families are beggared •, many hearts broken ; many 
lives lost; enough to make the efforts of good men more 
united and effective. In this commonwealth a railroad con- 
ductor has just been convicted of manslaughter, because by 
his neglect many lives were lost. He meant no harm, he 
thought no wrong. He stands among criminals for what 
he did, and did not. 

When we pass from the Railroad of reality to the Rail- 
road of Allegory, we may well carry the judgment and 
sentence of the civil law with us. If passengers connive 



Introductory. 8 

with conductors to imperil the train, it is time for more 
than sentiment ; for bold words, and bolder deeds. 

The weapons of this warfare must be chiefly moral and 
spiritual; however much may be accomplished by legal 
processes — and it is very much — the real work of the 
Reformer must be wrought upon the minds and hearts of 
men. Men must see not only the wretchedness but also the 
guiltiness, connected with the use of intoxicating liquors. 
Reason must be aroused and convinced ; but beyond that 
conscience must be quickened, its voice made strong and 
constant; its utterance clothed with the authority which 
God has given to it, The nature of men must be changed 
till they shall hate the evil, and love the good ; shall forsake 
the wrong and cleave to the right ; till they shall keep them- 
selves in all purity and submit themselves to the will of God ; 
till they shall be helpers one of another. The word which 
makes men Christians in any complete sense, in that act 
makes them temperate and generous, pure and helpful. 
Upon such results, sought by rational means, we must 
learn to rely. 

In the natural world, water cleanses and makes pure. It 
gives life and beauty. It stands as a symbol of the grace 
of God, which takes away thirst, and imparts comfort and 
vigor and honor. It may well stand, as it is here presented, 
as the representation of the divine influences whose opera- 
tion men are to seek for all good work, and in which they 
are to place an ample confidence. 

Let this book teach, this lesson, and it will be a valuable 
aid in the beneficient undertaking to which it is devoted. 

A. McK. 
Cambridge, 1879 



CONTENTS. 



Chap. Page. 

I. Boundaries and Characteristics . . 17 

II. Starting Place of Travellers .... 27 

III. Excursions for Health . . . .36 

IV. Wrecker's Curve 42 

V. Noted Places on the Road . . . 52 

VI. Attempts to check the Business of the Road 84 

VII. Prosperity of the Road 98 

VIII. The Flood 107 

IX. Annexation — Law Executed , , . 115 

X. Flood Increases 140 

XI. Medicineville annexed to Fountainland . . 145 

XII. Results of the Flood 157 

XIII. Stages for the Crystal River — Women. . 162 

XIV. Old Things pass away 170 

XV. Prisonton Water Works 177 

XVI. Water Commission 191 

XVII. Borderland 202 

9 



" . s 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Frontispiece 

Map of the Black Valley Country . 
Cascades of Fountainland 
Scene at a Black Valley Country Farm House 
Social Life in the Black Valley Country 
Great Depot at Sippington 
Sippington Gentleman . 
Family Ticket Office 
Explosion on the Black Valley Railroad 
Sailing on a Dangerous Sea . 
Scene in the Woods near Beggarstown 
A Sippington Lady visits a Prison 
The Witty Young Man at Deliriumton 
Jug or Not ..... 
Boy meeting his Father at Idiot Flats 
Visit to a Mother's Grave 
Depot of Mr. Lagerbrew & Co. 
II 



Page „ 
*4 

21 

25 
29 

33 

37 
46 

56 
61 

65 
7i 

72 

77 
7* 
96 



Illustrations* 



12 



Peculiar Institution run into . 
Suffering Wife's Heaven 
Family Scene in the Black Valley Country 
Selling the Family Clock 

The Pet Lamb 

The Drunkard's Child .... 
Father come Home .... 

Mr. Wriggler inquiring the Way Home. 
Dr. Brandycure gets a Prescription 
Officer Ironhand acting as Conductor . 
Mr. Bittersell and the Beggars 
Mr. Bittersell backing Down 
Mrs. Trywhiskey's Dream . . 
A Lady visits a Station House 
Meeting in a elevated Railroad Depot . 
' Experiments with Water 
The Sailor who kept away from the Devil Fi; 
Going to sleep in the Lion's Den . 

The Challenge 

Accepting the Challenge 

The Outside Meeting .... 



105 
114 
119 
121 
123 
125 
126 
135 
137 
138 

U3 
144 

155 
165 
167 
180 

193 
194 
206 



207 
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THE CRYSTAL RIVER TURNED UPON 
THE BLACK VALLEY COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 




Boundaries and Distinguishing Characteristics. 

S the now world famous black valley 
country of which this volume treats, con- 
tains a very large and rapidly-increasing 
population, all of whom have gone down over 
the great black valley road, and made a 
'permanent settlement of themselves and their 
families; and as the corporation of the road, 
by its great wealth, shrewd management, and 
indomitable energy, is exerting a vast influence 
socially and morally, as well as politically and fi- 
nancially — having more than five hundred thou- 
sand employees, and receiving more than seven hun- 
dred millions of dollars annually from its patrons 
— it seems desirable that the subject should be 
studied by the Christian and philanthropist as well 
as the statesman and political economist. 

*7 



18 Source of the Crystal River. 

Not easy reading for Stockholders and Travellers. 

The candid and intelligent reader who has no 
stock in the road, and who extends no patronage to 
it, will find it easy to comprehend what is here 
written ; while those who have an interest in the 
road, and occasionally take excursions upon it, and 
especially those who are within the ring of the cor- 
poration, will find it difficult to understand the 
meaning of the volume, as persons who suppose 
themselves to have beautiful features sometimes 
find it hard to believe their own eyes when looking 
into the face of the person who always confronts 
them in a looking-glass. 

The Black Valley Country is situated in an ex- 
tensive lowland, lying between an elevated and 
extremely fertile and beautiful region bounding it 
upon its upper limits, and a vast and unexplored 
desert forming its lower boundary. 

The country lying above it, and forming its 
upper boundary, is called Fountainland, from its 
great abundance of water. Cascades and water- 
falls are numerous ; so that the whole country can 
be irrigated and enriched by an abundant supply of 
the purest water. Living springs are found in 
every part of the land, forming multitudes of riv- 
ulets, which, uniting, flow into and form at last 
what is known as the great Crystal River, of which 
the reader will learn more in the progress of this 
volume. 

In the vincinity of the streams and lakes of 
Fountainland, numerous flourishing villages and 



Fountainland. 



19 



Health, Wealth and Good Morals. 



large cities have been built up. These places are 
all famous for the health, thrift and enterprise 
and good character of their inhabitants. Wealth, 
too, abounds ; and nearly all the people live in 




Cascades in Fountainland, near the head of the Crystal River. 

their own houses in a state of comparative inde- 
pendence. The morals and good order of the 
place are such that no police force is required for 
the protection of life and property. Prisons, alms- 



20 Black Valley Country. 

Emigrants dilapidated houses. Great Desert. 

houses and lunatic hospitals, are entirely unknown. 
The taxes levied upon the people are principally 
for the support of educational institutions and the 
general improvement of the country. 

One section of this Fountainland is occupied by 
emigrants from the Black Valley Country, who 
have removed there on account of the excellence 
and abundance of the water, as well as the good 
effects of it upon themselves and their families. 
These emigrants have built up many flourishing 
villages upon the banks of the Crystal River. 

Before their removal from the Black Valley 
Country, they were extremely poor, as well as low 
in the scale of civilization. Their houses were 
mostly wretched hovels, into which all the winds 
and rains of heaven had the freest access. Rags 
and demolished hats supplied the place of window- 
glass; while clapboards, dangling by a single nail, 
clattered doleful music to all the storms which pre- 
vailed without and within. In process of time, 
these emigrants became the most ardent admirers 
of the institutions, laws and customs of Fountain- 
land, and supplied much valuable information and 
efficient aid to the explorers and invaders of the 
Black Valley Country, as will appear in the sequel. 

On its lower limits, the Black Valley Country 
is bounded by a vast desert, whose inhabitants are 
continually wandering in dry places, seeking rest, 
and finding none. Over this desert thick clouds 
are always gathering and rolling, indicating ap- 
proaching storms and tempests. Winds war with 



!l|;!j,ij 

i!i!,;iiii 




Black Valley Country. 23 

Biteth like a Serpent, and Stino-eth like an Adder. 

winds, and storms howl to storms ; while forked 
lightnings cross, and thunders mutter sounds of 
sullen wrath. " A land of darkness as darkness 
itself," where no light comes save what the lurid 
flames of the volcano at the end of the road " cast 
pale and dreadful." It is sometimes called Tophet, 
from its resemblance to an ancient place of that 
name, where " the breath of the Lord, like a stream 
of brimstone, doth kindle the flame." Here are 
continents of desert gloom, where everything is 
in a state of disorder, beyond the bounds of light 
and life and love; " where gravitation, shifting 
turns the other way," forever drawing men from 
all that is good. It is a place of outer darkness, 
where there is weeping and wailing, and gnashing 
of teeth, and where all shapes, forms and mode 
of wretchedness are gathered. Here are dogs and 
sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and 
idolaters, and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie. 
Here is the worm that dieth not, and the fire that 
is not quenched. Here is found the reptile whose 
tooth is like the " cruel venom of asps, and which, 
at last, biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an 
adder." 

Great numbers of travellers are constantly pass- 
ing through the Bl ick Valley Country into these 
lower regions beyond. 

One of the most noticeable characteristics of the 
inhabitants is their aversion to water. Though 
water can be easily procured, the people seem 



24 Black Valley Country. 

Aversion to Water. Hydrophobia. 

quite disinclined to use it, even for purposes of 
irrigation. In some cases they have such a horror 
of it, that symptoms of hydrophobia have been 
indicated at the appearance of a watering-cart on 
the dry and dusty streets of some of their cities 
in the lower portions of the country. Sometimes 
the people become angry at the mention of the 
water of this Crystal River. 

Another remarkable fact about the inhabitants is, 
that not one of the vast population of the country 
was horn in the land. They have all gone down 
upon the Black Valley Railroad ; and their aver- 
sion to water is commonly attributed to the effect 
of travel on that road. 




Social Life in the Black Valley Country. 




CHAPTER II. 

Sho7vs where Travellers get themselves ready for their 
Departure to the Black Valley Country, and what 
Efforts have bee?i made to demolish the Great Depot 
at that Place. 

SIPPJNGTON. 



\f HE great upper terminus of the Black 
Valley Railroad from "which all travellers 
take their departure is sippington. Here 
a vast population, mostly of young people, are con- 
stantly getting ready to emigrate to the Black Valley 
Country. The population of the place is estimated 
at many millions. Every year, great numbers 
come in from the country above ; and, were it not 
for the fact they soon leave to go farther, the place 
would be overflowing "with its inhabitants. Boys 
and young men come to this place in vast numbers ; 
and it is a striking peculiarity of the place, that 
few middle-aged or old men are seen here. They 
that come here, pass on quickly to the places below ; 
and thronging ranks come in after them. 
27 



28 lamous Trumpeters. 



Beecher. Edwards. Pierpont. Gough. Jewett. 

Upon several occasions, this place has been at- 
tacked with the design of destroying it. Once its 
inhabitants were principally driven out ; so that for 
nearly twenty years the great depot, at one time 
more splendid than the famous Costal Palace, was 
in a dilapidated condition ; and for a long time it 
was thought it would fall down. 

This state of things was brought about by per- 
suading young people not to enter the place, and 
the inhabitants to return to the country from which 
they came. Several famous trumpeters were sent 
down from Fountainland to rouse the people to a 
sense of danger. 

These trumpeters blew a blast so loud that many 
of the inhabitants were frightened. Ticket mas- 
ters in the great depot thought the judgment-day 
had come, the blast was so long and loud and 
shrill, and made such a dreadful sound in their ears. 
Many left the place, never to return. At the first 
sound of the trumpet, they fled in haste; and 
many of them became trumpeters themselves ; and 
all, uniting together, sounded such an alarm that 
the houses in the place shook, and the great depot 
of the Black Valley Railroad was shattered as if it 
had been struck by lightning. Some of these 
trumpeters were men of renown ; and when they 
sounded their trumpets, the blast woke up whole 
neighborhoods and townships. In some instances 
this blast was known to start men to their feet, 
from a deep sleep. 



Exodus from Sippington. 31 

Great Alarm. Old Travellers. 

Each of these trumpeters had his peculiar gift 
and each one a trumpet according to his taste. 
These trumpets were of iron and brass and silver; 
and, when they sounded together, could be heard 
at a great distance ; and the sound was very terri- 
ble, especially to the masters of the depots upon 
the Black Valley Road. In many instances they 
were induced to abandon their business by reason 
of the shaking that came upon them when they 
heard the sound of these trumpets. At one time 
the alarm was almost universal ; so that whole 
families in great numbers were induced to leave 
the town forever. 

While the aforesaid trumpeters were sounding 
alarms, and persuading the inhabitants of Sipping- 
ton to abandon the place and remove to Fuiintain- 
land, they were greatly surprised at the appearance 
of a company of old travellers upon the Black 
Valley Road, who united with them in their 
attempts to alarm the Sippingtonians. 

These experienced travellers bore witness to the 
truth of what the trumpeters declared. They 
said they were all originally from Sippington, hav- 
ing commenced their travels in the Black Valley 
Country at that place. 

These travellers were from all the places upon 
the Black Valley Road. The men from Topersville 
spoke earnestly of the mischief which Sipping- 
ton had done to them ; and their fiery faces im- 



32 United Testimony . 

Prince of the Country. Depot repaired. 

parted impressiveness to their words. From 
Roicdyville, Quarrelville, Fightington, Staggerland, 
Wrecker s Curve, Walloiv ditch and Slaughter field, 
the men with faces bruised and battered gave in 
similar testimony. From Beggarstown, Prisonton, 
Dtliriumton, Demonland and other famous places 
on the Road, the testimony was the same, all unit- 
ing in declaring that the great Black Valley 
Country was inhabited by those who had gone down 
from Sippington. 

Among this company were some from the very 
lower regions of the country in which the road 
terminates. Some of these declared that they had 
seen the volcano at the end of it, and that the 
hissing and thundering of its fiery Hood could be 
heard for many miles, and was enough to appall the 
stoughtest heart. Some even declared that thev 
had seen the prince of the country hovering among 
its flames which shot up from the burning moun- 
tain at the end of the road. 

For a long time it was hoped that the great 
depot at Sippington would never be repaired, and 
that the place would go to decay. But, as soon as 
the trumpeters stopped sounding the alarm, the 
depot began to be repaired, and the place to be 
rebuilt ; and now it is said that the business of the 
Black Valley Road is again in a prosperous condi- 
tion, and that the Prince of the Black Valley 
Country, and proprietor and keeper of the great 




A Sippington gentleman rebukes a Topersville man for travel- 
ling on the Black Valley Road, who replies : 
"Only a little ahead of you, sir." 



United Testimony. 35 

Prince of the Country glad. 

depot at the lower terminus of the road is enjoying 
as much satisfaction in contemplating the pros- 
perity of his business as the nature of the case 
will allow. The reader will hear more of this 
place by and by, and of the great flood of the 
Crystal River by which it was swept away. 



CHAPTER III. 




Sho7us how Excursionists for Health found themselves 
ticketed in the Wrong Direction — Tip filet on and 
Tofiersville. 

MEDICINEVILLE. 



HIS is a flourishing village within the 
limits of Sippington," and is regarded as the 
court end of the town. Multitudes of 
travellers on the Black Valley Railroad take their 
tickets at this place. Fancy-tickets for excursions 
are sold here in great numbers, the purchasers 
being informed that short trips upon the road are 
healthful as well as exhilarating. By reason of 
these representations, invalids are so frequently 
persuaded to make excursions, that special trains, 
called the invalid-trains, start from this place. It 
is a favorite depot for young ladies, who come to 
this village in great numbers to take the invalid- 
trains, which are commonly much crowded during 
the seasons when the Black Valley Railroad is 
doing the most profitable business. 
36 



Black Valley Comitry. 37 

Travelling made Easy. 



The invalid-trains are fitted up with special 
accommodations for the class of travellers who 
patronize them. Seats and sleeping-apartments 
are so constructed that travellers are made as 



Family Ticket Office in Medicineville. 



comfortable as possible, especially during the first 
part of the journey ; indeed, some are made so 
happy that they sing and dance as the train bears 



38 Black Valley Country. 

Health excursions. Travelling physicians. 

them along; and it is reported that some have 
been so happy that they leaped from the train. 
These accidents have commonly happened at or 
near Idiot Flats ; when the condition of travellers 
is frequently such that they are ready for the 
most strange and daring feats. 

Persons who have given attention to the matter 
are of the opinion that multitudes of those that 
are thrown out of the trains along the track of 
the road are thrown from the invalid-trains, all of 
which start from Medicineville. It is a noticeable 
fact, too, in regard to travellers from this village, 
that they appear less healthful as they advance on 
the road ; and that, while they think their excur- 
sions are improving their health, the evidence be- 
comes abundant that health is departing just in 
proportion to the speed of the trains, and the dis- 
tance of travel. 

Another noticeable thing about the invalid- 
trains is, that travellers often have the company of 
their physicians. Some of these travelling physi- 
cians are also large stockholders in the road, and 
have built splendid country-seats in Medicineville 
out of their profits on the sale of tickets to in- 
valids. 

In some cases, vast fortunes have been suddenly 
accumulated in this way. Among the numerous 
conspicuous buildings in Medicineville is one, over 
the principal entrance of which is painted in large 
characters, Acid Bitters. 



Sympathy of Travellers. 39 

Boundary lines not visible. Friendly Intercourse. 

The proprietors of this establishment have suc- 
ceeded by their enterprise in enticing multitudes 
to purchase excursion-tickets, many of which have 
taken the purchasers to Idiot Flats, and even to 
the " great bonfire " at the lower terminus of the 
road. The success of this establishment has led 
many others to remove to Medicineville, and estab- 
lish themselves in the same line of business. 



TIPPLETON 

is the third great depot upon the Black Valley 
Roach Its vicinity to Sippington and Medicine- 
ville, and the similarity of its social customs, have 
perpetuated a friendly intercourse between the in- 
habitants of the two places. So great is the simi- 
larity of the places, that travellers are not always 
aware when they pass from one to the other ; and 
the inhabitants themselves seem not to be aware of 
the exact place of the boundary-line. 

Along this line they are continually intermingl- 
ing, and keeping up the most friendly intercourse : 
and it is not until the traveller has got into the 
midst of the place that he is made aware of his 
progress. At the centre of the town the faces of 
the inhabitants begin to put on a fiery hue, and 
the tongue to give forth its utterance with a pecu- 
liar glibness. Here, too, the people begin to have 
an unsatisfied and thirsty look ; and drinking- 



40 Black Valley Country. 

Name disliked. Good things to be used. 

saloons arrest attention in all the streets. To and 
from these saloons the people are continually 
thronging, and especially in the evening ; sit 
which time young men in multitudes are seen 
gathering, as if some charm were drawing them 
thither. 

Upon the outskirts of this place are located 
numerous breweries, which send up a continuous 
cloud of smoke, which, mingling with the miasmas 
of the swineyards, impart an impurity to the air, 
which is very detrimental to health, in many 
cases laying the foundation of the most fatal 
diseases. 

A noticeable peculiarity of this place is, that the 
people generally deny the name of their town, and 
contend that they belong within the limits of 
Fountainland ; inasmuch as they use all the good 
things of God temperately, and with thanksgiv- 
ing, as all grateful people should, who enjoy so 
many blessings from their breweries and drinking- 
saloons. 

TOPERSVILLE 

is the next place of importance in the Black Val- 
ley Country. The appearance of the place distin- 
guishes it at once from the places above it on the 
Great Central Jload. The faces of the inhabitants 
look fiery and fierce ; the eye is red and inflamed, 
as if continual watching without sleep were the 
business of the people ; the tongue, too, moves 



Black Valley Country. 41 

Who hath babbling. 

irregularly, clipping its words into all manner of 
abreviations, and moving with surprising speed and 
volubility, so that with the utmost care it is often 
impossible to extract any meaning from the flood 
of words which are poured forth. The principal 
characteristic of this place, is the number of its 
taverns and other liquor-selling establishments. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Wrecker's Curve — Through Tickets — Express Trains 
— Flags — Travellers leaving the Trains — Mr. Kon- 
s hunts thro7us Arrows into the Sleeping-cars — Old 
Boy on the Engine. 




WRECKERS CURVE. 

HE annual number of arrivals at this place is 
estimated at six hundred thousand.* Here 
the trains for the through route are all made 
up ; and all who do not leave the cars at or before 
they arrive at this place are understood to be 
ticketed for the end of the road. 

At this point all the branches of the Black Val- 
ley Road make their junction for the great through 
routes. These branches are all constructed from 
the outskirts of Sippington, for the accommodation 
of its rapidly-increasing population. They run 
nearty parallel to the main road, coming together 
at this junction. 

Here the through express trains are made up, 
and passengers begin to take their through tickets ; 
and it is found that most persons who come to this 

* See Centennial Report. 
42 



Good Fellowship. 43 

Baggage taken in. Through tickets. 

place go on to the end of the road, unless their 
money fails so that they cannot maintain the style 
of genteel travellers, in which case they are 
thrown out by the conductors at Beggarstown and 
other places upon the road. 

At this junction immense quantities of freight 
and baggage are taken in. The excitement which 
arises from the coming together of so many travel- 
lers seems to create a good fellowship, which is 
found to be favorable to the sale of through 
tickets, and also to the obtaining of freight and 
baggage for the road. 

In the good cheer that prevails, travellers some- 
* times dispose of everything they possess, exchang- 
ing it for whole packages of tickets, to be given 
away even to strangers, if they will consent to 
travel in company with them. By this social in- 
fluence, many are persuaded to continue their 
travels who otherwise would be persuaded to 
return by the Fountainland stages, which are 
always stationed at this place. Many, too, who 
have never travelled on this road, are persuaded 
by the strong social influences of the place, and 
the good companionship of the travellers, to go 
into the saloons of the trains, where they some- 
times find themselves moving in a direction they 
had not intended, and at length, when too late, 
learn that they are ticketed for the Black Valley 
Country. 

By this social influence, too, the great company 



44 Curve at the Precijrice. 

Wounded and dead. * Help for the helpless. 

of gamblers, who are authorized freight-agents and 
baggage-masters of the road, are able to carry on 
to great advantage their operations, in connection 
with which vast quantities of baggage, as well as 
its owners, are taken in for the through route. 

The curve which the road makes at this point is 
very sharp, and runs along the edge of a frightful 
precipice, over which whole trains are often 
thrown down and upset. Here begin to be seen 
the bruised and wounded and dead that have been 
ejected from the trains which have gone along 
before. 

Soon after leaving the station, the trains plunge 
into a gloomy forest known as the Great Black 
Valley Woods, Avliere the mutilated bodies of those 
which have been thrown out and piled up along 
the road are seen. Beyond, the heavens look 
black and stormy, so that travellers who have 
come down to this place sometimes become 
alarmed, and are often persuaded to leave the 
trains and return. 

For the accommodation of this class of travel- 
lers, a line of stages to all villages in Fountainland 
has been established. The proprietors of these 
stages have established this line from purely be- 
nevolent motives, and offer a free pass to all trav- 
ellers; and, in order the more effectually to secure 
patronage, they employ a large number of persons 
to give warning to travellers, and persuade them 
to abandon this road. 




An explosion on the Black Valley Railroad caused by the attempt of a Fountainland 
Stage boy to introduce Water into an overheated and damaged engine. 
A Picture for Boys. 



Black Valley Country. 47 

Warnings. Travellers disturbed. Frightful dreams. 

Flagmen are stationed above this curve who 
keep up a continual waving of flags in the day- 
time, and of colored lights in the night. 

While these flagmen are displaying their flags 
and red lights, they are in the habit of calling 
with loud voices, and blowing whistles and ringing 
bells as the trains approach, so as to alarm all pas- 
sengers, by warning them of their danger, and 
especially for the purpose of waking up any who 
may be sleeping. 

On account of these demonstrations by the 
stage men, a conflict is sometimes brought on be- 
tween them, and the conductors and stockholders 
of the road. The Black Valley Road men com- 
plain that the stage men are interfering with their 
business. They call them noisy fanatics, and dis- 
turbers of peaceful and inoffensive travellers, who 
have a right to travel undisturbed, where, and on 
what road, they please. 

Mr. Konshunts, an old enemy to the road, is 
particularly offensive to the Black Valley men at 
this place, and all the stations above. Complaint 
is made that his voice sometimes shakes the whole 
train, and makes men jump from a sound sleep, 
and is particularly offensive to passengers in the 
sleeping-cars, who are made to dream that they 
are falling into the great hole at the end of the 
road. 

The stockholders, especially, complain that his 
voice is insufferable, and that all quiet sleep is im- 



48 Opposition to the Road. 

Mr. Konshunts throws darts. Attempts to bribe him. 

possible while he is permitted to keep up his noise. 
They complain, too, that he has darts ; which he 
frequently throws into the trains in such a care- 
less way that gentlemen of wealth and of the 
highest standing, are sometimes badly wounded. 

On account of this annoyance, several attempts 
have been made to dispose of him and get him out 
of the way. Bribes have been offered; and 
when they have been rejected, they have attempted 
to drug him, and so quiet his noise. In some cases 
they blindfolded him, so that he could not see 
plainly which way the cars were going. 

In this condition of things, they attempted to 
persuade him that the}' were running up trains on 
the road, and transporting sick people on excur- 
sions for health. In this way he was sometimes 
kept quiet for a time ; but when the blindfold fell 
off, so that he could see ivhich way the trains were 
moving, and discovered that they all went down, 
and none up, he would set up his noise with re- 
doubled energy, so that passengers sometimes 
thought that a thunder-storm was gathering. 

" What do you think you shall accomplish by 
your everlasting clamor and noise ? " said a Black 
Valley man to Mr. Konshunts, calling to him from 
a splendid train which was passing by. "Do you 
think you can stop us, or throw our trains from the 
track? Do you think that a business which so 
many respectable people are patronizing, and out of 
which vast fortunes are made, and multitudes 



Mr. Konshunts' Speech. 49 

Slumbers broken. The beautiful city. 

raised from poverty to affluence, will be abandoned 
on account of such annoyances as, you are able to 
practise upon us ? Will the multitude of travellers, 
many of whom are sleeping quietly in the cars that 
have been provided for their comfort, think you 
otherwise than very uncivil for rousing them from 
their pleasant slumbers ? ,? 

"I am not certain," replied Mr. Konshunts, 
" that I shall accomplish any thing by my clamor 
and noise, as you call it ; and I am aware that the 
conductors and stockholders of your road, and 
many of the travellers upon it, are not in the habit 
of regarding my voice ; but I must do what I can 
to prevent travel upon your road. In former times, 
I persuaded multitudes to quit it, and take the 
Fountainland stages for the Crystal River. 
"Upon the banks of the beautiful river to which 
these stages run, a great city, which abounded in 
schools and churches and wealth and comfort was 
built up and became at length one of the wonders 
of the age. Whole families which left your 
road in rags and wretchedness went to that city, 
and built them houses, and lived in comfort and 
respectability. Many of them not only left your 
road, but they left that ; broad road ' by the side 
of which yours runs, and of which it was the prin- 
cipal feeder and have gone to the city which hath 
foundations deep and strong, and through which 
flows the river of the water of Life, clear as ciystal. 
" In view of my success when I first began my 



50 Speech Continued. 

Renewed efforts. The arrows of the Almighty. 

remonstrance and clamor against your road, I pro- 
pose to renew it with redoubled energy. A great 
cloud of witnesses, made up of those who were 
saved by me, now call me to renew my efforts to 
persuade travellers to leave it, and take the stages 
to that river upon the banks of which is built that 
beautiful city, which proved a city of refuge to so 
many who, at my call, abandoned forever your 
road. 

" I shall, therefore," said Mr. Konshunts in con- 
clusion, "continue to keep up what you call my 
clamor and noise. I shall also throw my darts 
among you; and, though I know that many of you 
are harnessed in the hardest mail, I shall hope that 
some of them will pierce the joints in your harness. 
At all points upon the road you will hear my voice, 
if you have ears to hear ; and, if you have not, I am 
sure you will feel some of my darts ; for they will 
be sharper and more numerous as you proceed. At 
Wrecker s Curve, Rob erston, Weepington, Wailingvale, 
those places on your road where sleep forsakes all 
travellers, I shall shower my arrows thick and fast, 
and so barbed that some of you will exclaim, 
; The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the 
poison whereof drinketh up my spirit ; ' for those 
are the places where I am especially commissioned 
to meet }~ou with messages from him whose servant 
I am. At Screechowlton, too, you will hear my 
voice ; which I am sure will be a dreadful sound 
in your ears, as the ill-boding birds of that dismal 



Mr. Kon shunts. 51 



Speech continued. Old boy on the engine. 

place are in league with me against your business, 
and will sing to you in tones that will drive sleep 
far away. At Thunderland, also, you will hear my 
voice, which will remind you of the s harsh thun- 
der ' of the gates of that prison towards which you 
are carrying your victims. At Stormland, too, you 
will hear it, as if a thousand storms were speaking 
to you in voices of warning and remonstrance, and 
pouring hailstones and coals of fire upon you. At 
Whirlwind Crossing I shall roar in your ears, and 
make all 3'our trains tremble as they labor on 
towards their plunge into the great gulf at the end 
of the road." 

When Mr. Konshunts had concluded his speech, 
the Black Valley man " grinned horribly, a ghostly 
smile," saying, U I wonder if that old croaker 
thinks he shall frighten us while moving on in this 
splendid train ? I wish he would lay himself across 
the track, and try to stop us in that way, instead 
of throwing these arrows." And, calling to the 
fireman, they said, " Stir up the fire, ' old boy ! ' 
and let us be getting out of the noise of this old 
tormenter, who has been troubling 11s all the way 
to this place, and whose arrows are beginning to 
fall in showers along the track, and who intimates 
to us that the very forces of nature are in league 
with him against our business." 




CHAPTER V. 

Noted Places in the Black Valley Country which have 
been built up and are kept in a Flourishing Condition 
by the Enterprise of the Black Valley Railroad, 

EOWDYVILLE 

"S situated upon the outskirts of the great 
Black Valley Forest, which extends from 
Wrecker's Curve to the lower boundary of 
country. This forest is remarkable for the 
fact, that none of its trees seem to be standing 
erect. Fallen and falling trees are the first objects 
noticed ; and, as the observer draws near, his at- 
tention is arrested by the coiling of huge serpents 
around the young trees, many of which seem to be 
bending and breaking. Hungry and wolfish faces, 
too, can be seen peering out from what seems to 
be a thorn-hedge, extending along the edge of the 
forest. 

As the trains of the Black Valley Road enter 
this forest, these hungry faces seem to be lighted 
up with a smile, as if the trains were bringing 
52 



Black Valley Country. 53 

Falling young trees. Ejected travellers. 

something to appease their hunger. The cracked 
young trees, and the fallen ones, indicate unusual 
activity among the causes which are known to 
bend and break down so many of their number. 
These indications impart a peculiar gloominess and 
terror to the forest ; so much so, that none can be 
persuaded to enter it, except travellers upon the 
Black Valley Road. To them is imparted a cour- 
age which seems to be the result of their travel ; 
and the serpents whose coils are bending the trees, 
and the hungry monsters that are feeding upon the 
half-dead bodies that have been thrown from the 
trains, seem not to alarm them : indeed, at times 
they appear to be pleased with what they see 
around them, and to admire their own courage and 
strength of mind in being able to witness these 
things without fear. 

The first indication of the approach of the train 
to Rowdyville is a confused noise, which can be 
heard at a considerable distance. This noise grows 
louder as the trains approach, and is soon discovered 
to be the noise of a great multitude in a row. As 
the trains shoot by this place, some are always 
thrown out of the saloons of the cars for becoming 
disorderly and making disturbance and noise. 
These ejected passengers make up the great multi- 
tude whose noise is heard as the trains enter the 
Black Valley Forest. A large proportion of them 
are young men ; whose money having failed, and 



54 Fightington. 



Striking the ground. Who hath wounds without a cause ? 

whose friends at the bar of the saloon having also 
failed, have been given to understand that their 
room is now better than their company. 

As they have struck the ground at the place of 
their ejection, many of them have been made to 
feel such a sense of their whereabouts as to fill 
them with anger at the conductors of the road ; 
and it not unfrequently happens, that the curses of 
the whole multitude are poured upon the road and 
its managers for having brought them to this place. 

FIGHTINGTON 

has a large population ; and, were it not for the 
absence of all uniform, and the very unmilitary 
icalk of its inhabitants, they would be taken for 
old soldiers just returned from many hard-fought 
battles. The wounds of these people seem to be 
mostly about their eyes ; where the settled blood 
indicates concussions of much severity, as if the 
bricks from the sidewalks had leaped from their 
places, and struck them in the head. In some 
cases, huge gashes in the face indicate that severe 
battles have been fought with the curb-stones ; 
w^hich it is supposed have attacked them when they 
were ejected from the trains that brought them to 
this place. Sometimes scratches upon the face in- 
dicate that the fighting has been of a domestic 
character, and that the wives of these men have 
entered the lists with such weapons as have been 



Black Valley Country. 57 

Fighting a pump. Elack Sea. Whirlpools. 

convenient for self-defence. It is related of one 
of the inhabitants, that he was attacked by the 
pump, while on his way home in the night, and 
that the handle of the pump struck him severely 
on the head ; whereupon he turned upon the pump, 
and gave it such punishment with his fists, that the 
pump bore marks of blood for many weeks after- 
wards. 



BROTHELTON 

is situated on an extensive lake of black mire near 
the Black Valley Railroad, called Debauch Slough. 
When approached, it has the appearance of a 
placid sea, upon the shores of which the eye 
seems to discover pleasant arbors and flowery 
groves. This slough extends along the track of 
the road as far as the eye can see. At the head of 
the slough no current can be perceived ; but, far- 
ther down, a strong current is met, which, flowing 
more and more rapidly, at length bears every thing 
before it. 

As this current sweeps on, it forms whirlpools 
and eddies, and at length plunges into a deep 
gorge, over which hang mists and clouds that no 
eye can penetrate. Deceived by appearances, 
multitudes who come down upon the Black Valley 
Road are persuaded to embark in pursuits of pleas- 
ure upon this dangerous sea ; and, ere they are 
aware, its eddies and currents bear them along 



58 Black Valley Country. 

Maelstrom. Going down to the chambers of death. 

toward the boiling chasm, into which they sink to 
rise no more. 

Of the numbers that are destroyed at this mael- 
strom no accurate estimate can be made ; though 
it is well ascertained that the average length of 
the life of pleasure-seekers here is three and a half 
years, and that the deaths which they die are sad 
and terrible, for that " they mourn at the last, 
when the flesh and the body are consumed." It is 
also asserted upon the highest authority, that 
"none that go there return again, neither take 
they hold on the path of life ; yea, that it is the 
way to hell, going down to the chambers of 
death." 

BEGGARSTOWN. 

This is one of the largest places upon the road. 
The number of its inhabitants is estimated at four 
hundred thousand ; and the number is constantly 
kept good by the Black Valley Road, all of whose 
trains throw out more or less at this place, as they 
pass. Some of those that are thrown out are in a 
most shocking condition. In all cases they come 
down in rags and wretchedness, being destitute of 
clothing and food. In many cases they are sick 
from their long and uncomfortable rides and desti- 
tution of food, as only liquor can be procured at 
the saloons in the trains, and that of a quality 
very detrimental to health. In other cases those 
who are thrown out are badly wounded, and need 



Beggarstoivn. 59 



Shock of the fall. Children. 

the most careful attendance to keep them alive. 
In some cases they survive their fall but a short 
time, so great is the shock as they strike the 
ground. 

This shock is greater to those who have formerly 
lived in affluence, and who have come down on 
the road in the splendid express-trains. They had 
no thought of going to this place when they took 
the cars at Sippington ; and, as they have been 
carried along, they have had no idea of their prog- 
ress, or even the direction in which they were 
going, until they began to feel the iron hands of 
the conductors as they were thrown from the trains. 
As they woke to a realization of their condition, 
and the destitution and horrors of the place, and a 
sense of the great change which had come over 
them as memory went back to the time of their 
prosperity, it has seemed as if they would sink 
down in death. 

One of the most painful things witnessed at this 
depot of the Black Valley Road is the number of 
children who are brought along in the arms of their 
parents, and flung out with them at this point. 
These children are often very promising ; and as 
they grow up, and come at length to see where 
they are, and to know what brought them there, 
they have a sense of injury done to them which 
stings them to the quick. 

" Mother," said a bright little boy who was call- 
ing to mind the pleasant scenes of better days — 



60 Beggarstown. 



A little boy's question. The mother's reply. 

" Mother, how came we in this horrible place ? 
Why did we not continue to live in the beautiful 
house which we occupied at Fountainland, where 
we were all happy, and had enough to eat and 
drink and wear ? Why did we leave that pleasant 
country, where I went to school and to the house 
of God, where pleasant friends called to see us at 
our own house, and seemed to respect and love us 
so much ? O mother ! I am distressed as I go 
around this dreary place, and see so many in rags, 
and hear so many people crying for bread. I feel 
like crying too ; not only because I pity them, but 
because I feel hunger and destitution myself; and 
I cannot but feel that there is some great wrong 
in my being here. What have I done that my for- 
mer pla) r mates should now despise me, and refuse 
to be my companions ? I remember I once had 
good clothes and shoes. O mother ! do tell me 
about this, and let me go back to the place from 
which we have moved ! " 

At the conclusion of this speech, the mother was 
sobbing as if her heart would break ; and the 
tears fell like showers, coursing down over her 
careworn face. 

" O my child ! " she replied, amid sobs of grief, 
" I cannot tell you all about the cause of our com- 
ing to this place, and what has happend to us on 
our way here, You love your father ; and it 
would break your heart to know all about what 
has happened to our family. I can only tell you, 




In the woods near Beggarstown. A little boy inquires of his mother "how 
they come to that place ? " 



Black Valley Country. 63 

Families not separated. Picking up ejected travellers. 

that you and I and all of us came to this place on 
that dreadful road which has brought so many 
besides us here also. Near to our beautiful house 
was a fashionable depot on that road. Your fa- 
ther was tempted to travel on that road; and 
the result is, we are all here. We are a family, 
and could not be separated, and can only look to 
God for help in our great trouble. We are suf- 
fering for that for which we are not to blame ; 
and I am sure the conductors and stockholders of 
the road that has brought us here will have a 
dreadful account to render bj 7 " and by. I think 
they will pray for the rocks and mountains to 
fall on them, for keeping up that road which 
brought your father, and all of us, and all these 
poor children and their fathers, down into this 
Black Valley." 

In order to convey those who are thrown out 
from the numerous daily trains to the buildings 
prepared for their reception, a large number of 
ambulances are required. On the arrival of the 
trains, these ambulances are driven to the great 
depot ; and the ejected men, women and children, 
are gathered up. Sometimes strings of ambu- 
lances extending many miles, are seen moving 
from the depot. The number of attendants, in- 
cluding nurses and physicians, is many thousands. 
The annual cost of maintaining this vast estab- 
lishment is twenty-seven millions of dollars, for 
which a tax is levied upon the whole community. 



64 Black Valley Country. 

Population dependent upon the business of the road. 

PRISONTOJST. 

The appearance of this place when seen at a 
distance, is like that of a fortified city. Walls of 
solid granite, upon the top of which sentinels are 
continually moving to and fro, extend quite around 
the place. Were it not for the grated appearance 
of the embrasures, and the not very military move- 
ment of the sentinels, strangers in approaching 
would take it for a vast fortification, large enough 
for the encampment and manoeuvring of an 
army. 

The population of the place is estimated at one 
hundred thousand. The number residing here is 
continually varying, as the business of the Black 
Valley Railroad is prosperous or otherwise ; in- 
deed, the road may be said to have built the 
place, as full three-fourths of its population have 
come down there upon it. It is known, too, that 
when any branch of the aforesaid road is for 
any reason obstructed, the population of the 
place decreases, according to the decrease in the 
business of the road. 

When the trumpeters of which we have spo- 
ken aroused the people of Fountainland to attack 
and demolish the great depot at Sippington, and 
tear up the track of the road, this place was the 
principal sufferer. Whole precincts in the place 
were for a time almost deserted. In one section, 
known as the Maine precinct, it was ascertained 




A Sippington lady goes to see her son at Prisonton, who tells her that 
her example has brought him to that place. 



Prisonton. 67 



Inmates not allowed to play truant. 



that the stopping of the trains of the Black Val- 
ley Road for a short time was followed by a 
great decrease of population; so much so, that 
many lodging-houses and workshops were de- 
serted, and remained in that condition until the 
repairing of the road and the rebuilding of the 
great depot at the head of that branch ; when the 
place began again to be filled up with travellers, 
who came down in great numbers to the old de- 
serted lodgings and workshops. 

The one hundred thousand men and women of 
the place are furnished with lodgings and care at 
the expense of the government. They wear a 
uniform, so as to be distinguished from all out- 
siders and untravelled gentlemen not belonging 
to their school ; so that they can be easily found, 
in case they play truant. 

A system of instruction is continually carried 
on, every thing in the place having reference to 
this. The very architecture of the place has a 
voice which speaks continually to all the inmates. 
The lofty corridors and symmetrical lodging-rooms 
rising tier above tier ; the grated windows ; the 
orderly movements; the footfall of sentinels, 
walking to and fro in the dim-lighted halls ; the 
click of the hammers, under which the rude 
stones are putting on forms of beauty ; the noise 
of the workshops, where busy hands are employed 
in useful labor ; and, above all, the silent tears 
that may often be seen trickling down the faces 



68 Black Valley Country. 

Lesson from a solemn platform. Demons. 

of those who are at their busy toil, as if thoughts 
of home and friends and better days were throng- 
ing into the soul — - all these things are continu- 
ally imparting salutary lessons. 

At times, too, a solemn and silent lesson is 
imparted from a platform erected for that pur- 
pose ; where some inmate, with hands " thicker 
than themselves with brothers' blood," comes 
forth with surroundings such as cannot fail to 
make an impression, and is launched into eternity 
as a warning to all travellers upon the Black 
Valley Koad. 

DELIRIUMTO]* 

is situated far down towards the lower regions 
of the Black Valley Country. Its vicinity to this 
lower boundary renders it constantly accessible 
to the inhabitants of that land of darkness, who 
frequently visit it in order to torment before 
their time those who have come so near their 
place of misery. The distinguishing character- 
istic of the place is, that all its inhabitants seem 
to be possessed by demons who drive them into 
dens and caves, lacerate them with wounds, and 
make them a terror to all around them. Snakes 
and monsters — 

"Gorgans and Hydras and Chimeras dire," 

seem to be in pursuit of them, so that the air is 



I)etiriumtort. 69 



Delirium tremens. Ghosts. Devils. 

always filled with shrieks of distress. Ghosts, 
too, abound ; and the people are always in a state 
of alarm lest something terrible should happen 
to them. Many who have come to this land of 
horrors have been heard in their w T ild delirium 
to exclaim : 

" Lost, lost ! I know forever lost ! " 
To me no ray of hope can come ! 
My fate is sealed ; my doom is — 
But give me rum ; I will have rum ! 
But, doctor, don't you see him there ? 
In that dark corner low he sits. 
See how he sports his fiery tongue, 
And at me burning brimstone spits ! 

Go chase him out ! look, here he comes ! 
Now in my bed he wants to stay : 
He sha'n't be there ! O God ! O God ! 
Go 'way, I say ! go 'way, go 'way ! 
Quick ! chain me fast, and tie me down ! 
There, now; he clasps me in his arms ! 
Down, down the window ! close it tight ! 
Say, don't you hear my wild alarms ? 

Say, don't you see this demon fierce ? 
Does no one hear ? Will no one come ? 
Oh, save me, save me ! I will give — 
But rum ! I must have, will have, rum ! 
Ah ! now he's gone ; once -more .I'm free ; 
He, the boasting knave and liar — 
He said that he would take me off 
Down to — but there, my bed's on fire ! 



TO Blade Valley Country. 



Horrors. Demons. Coach on Lire. 

Fire! water! help! come, haste — I'll die! 

Come, take me from this burning bed ! 

The smoke ! I'm choking, cannot cry! 

There now, it's catching at my head ! 

But see ! again that demon's come ! 

Look ! there he peeps through yonder glass : 

Mark how his burning eyeballs flash ! 

How fierce he grins ! What brought him back ? 

There stands his burning coach of fire ! 
He smiles, and beckons me to come 
What are those words he's written there ? 
" In Jiell we'll never want for rum / " 
One loud, one piercing shriek was heard—- 
One yell rang out upon the air ; 
One sound, and one alone, came forth — 
The victim's cry of wild despair. 

Why longer w r ait ? I'm ripe for hell : 
A spirit's sent to bear me down. 
There in the regions of the lost 
I sure will wear a fiery crown. 
Damned I know without a hope ! 
(One moment more, and then I'll come.) 
And there I'll quench my awful thirst 
" With boiling, burning, fiery rum." * 

MANIACYILLE 

is in tlie immediate vicinity of Deliriumton. The 
boundary-line between the two places has never 
been settled ; and travellers often pass from one 
place into the other without being aware of it. 

* By Joseph Allison. 




The witty young man, who thought water was good for navigation and irrigation, 
but not for drink, except for cattle. 



*!ft-Om<»S0*. 




^kgne at Demonland. Worshippers of the principal god of the Black 
Valley Country. 



Demon! and. 73 



From Deliriumton to Fountainland. Land of darkness. 

The peculiarity of the people of Maniacville is, 
that they are permanently settled, so that they 
never remove from the place : whereas the people 
of Deliriumton are frequently carried to their 
home by the Fountainland stages, where they 
commonly remain during life, unless some ticket- 
broker of the Black Valley Road persuades them 
to an excursion ; when they return quickly to the 
place, sometimes shooting by it with such, speed 
that they arrive at Maniacville, where all efforts to 
bring them back are unavailing, and where they 
are left to die amid the horrors of the place. 

DEMONLAKD 

is situated in a deep, gloomy ravine, where no ray 
of the sun ever comes. High and frowning moun- 
tains enclose it on all sides. The mountains are 
entirely destitute of all vegetation ; and not a 
flower can be found growing among the clefts of 
the rocks. At times the winds can be heard sigh- 
ing and roaring among the crags of the mountains, 
as if fiends were shrieking in the air. The contin- 
ued absence of the sun's direct rays imparts a 
peculiar gloominess to the place. 

The houses are mostly in a dilapidated con- 
dition, and to the eye it seems as if they had re- 
ceived a coating of black paint, so deep are the 
shadows of the clouds which float and frown over- 
head. No smiles are ever seen in the faces of the 



74 Black Valley Country. 

Hell on earth. Stockholders in commotion. 

inhabitants ; and deeds of darkness, such as no 
pen can describe or imagination paint, are commit- 
ted here. The place seems to stand in the very 
precincts of hell; and the stoutest hearts are ap- 
palled at what is seen and heard : so much so, that 
travellers on arriving, not unfrequently exclaim, — 
" Hell is empty ; and all the devils are here ! " 



HORNETSNEST. 

This place has received its name from the fact, 
that travellers on the Black Valley Road, more 
especially stockholders and conductors, frequently 
experience a sensation similar to that of a sting on 
arriving at this point. Sometimes this sting is so 
severe, and felt by so many in the train, that a 
terrible commotion is produced. Some say that 
that old tormentor, Konshunts, shoots poisoned 
arrows into the train at this place. 

Not only those in the trains, but old travellers 
who have come down on the road and built their 
country-seats here, are anno3 T ed in the same way. 
Though some of them live in fine houses, and are 
surrounded with appearances of affluence and com- 
fort, they seem never to be happy. At times they 
are known to start and shriek and turn pale, as if 
stung by some invisible messenger. 

In their dreams, too, they are frequently dis- 
turbed, and cry, " Avaunt, and quit my sight ! " 



Hornetsnest. 75 



Stockholders disturbed. Compunctious visitings. 

sometimes waking in a state of perspiration and 
trembling. " Did I murder your husband ? " ex- 
claimed one in his disturbed sleep. " Did I throw 
your family from the train at Beggarstown ? " 
" Did I drive you from your beautiful cottage in 
Fountainland, and put upon you these rags, and 
give you that haggard, careworn face ? " Why do 
you point your skinny finger at me ? I was only 
fireman upon the road on which your husband 
travelled into the Black Valley Country. By my 
engine I supported my family, and accumulated 
the means of making them comfortable. Moreover, 
I have retired from the business in which I accu- 
mulated my wealth. And have I not fed the hun- 
gry, and given drink to the thirsty, and taken in 
the stranger? Why, then, should I be disturbed 
and stung by such compunctious visitings as yours ? 

" Bring me to my trial, if you will : 
Died he not in his bed ? Where should he die ? 
Can I make men live whether they will or no ? 
Oh ! torture me no more ; I will confess, 

Alive again 

Comb down his hair : look, look, it stands upright, 
Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul ! 
Give me some drink ! and bid the apothecary 
Bring me the strong poison that I brought him." 

IDIOT FLATS 

is a portion of the Black Valley Country inhabi- 
ted by a great company of imbeciles ; who have 



76 Idiot Flats. 



Soot. Scintillations. Excessive politeness. Lack-lustre eye. 

become such by travel upon the Black Valley 
Road, and who have been ejected at this place on 
account of their unfitness for the society of their 
fellow-beings. Nearly all of them have come to 
the place under the delusion that excursions upon 
that road were favorable to health and good cheer. 
The exhilaration produced by travel they have 
mistaken for intellectual activity; the sparks of 
the engine they have taken to be the scintillations 
of their own wit ; and the sooty embers and smoke 
they have regarded as the brilliant corruscatidns of 
their genius. 

The class of travellers who are bound for Idiot 
Flats can easily be distinguished by their appear- 
ance on the road. Their politeness is sometimes 
so excessive that they fall down in making bows ; 
Avhile at other times they are ready to fight every- 
body with whom they meet, on account of some 
fancied insult. Their vacant countenances and 
lack-lustre eyes, as well as their general deport- 
ment, always indicate to all who observe them the 
place of their destination. 

Multitudes of the children of travellers on the 
same road are found among the inhabitants of the 
place, having been born while their parents were 
at Topersville and other places upon the route. 

GREAT DESERT 

is a section of the Black Valley Country extend- 




A boy returning from school with his companions, meets his father near 
Idiot Flats, and begs him to go home, 




An only son of his mother returns from the Black Valley Country to his home, 
and visits his mother's grave. 



Great Desert. 79 



Wanderers. Vagabonds and Outcasts. Land of gloom. 

ing many leagues along the track of the great 
thoroughfare to the volcano. It is a land of 
drought and dust and desolation. Neither tree 
nor shrub nor, any green thing meets the eye of 
the traveller over this desert land. On account of 
the great drought and heat which constantly pre- 
vail, whirlwinds are frequently formed ; by which 
vast clouds of dust are carried across the desert, 
producing a condition of the atmosphere which 
not unfrequently causes death. Sometimes these 
whirlwinds are accompanied with terrific storms, 
with hailstones and coals of fire. The population 
of this desert is made up of Wanderers, Vaga- 
bonds and Outcasts; who have been carried away 
from their homes and families upon the Black 
Valley Railroad, and ejected at this place, so far 
from home and friends that all hope of their return 
is given up. 

Beyond Idiot Flats and the Great Desert lies 
the great Black Valley, the land of gloom, and 
darkness as darkness itself, stretching far away to 
the region of perpetual storms ; where travellers 
learn when too late that the road upon which 
they have come down is a branch of the old 
"Broad Road," which terminates at the same 
place, designed and constructed by the prince of 
the Black Valley Country to swell the numbers, 
and hasten the speed, of travellers to his great 
reception-house at the end of the road; where, 
" grinning horribly with ghastly smiles," he re- 



80 Death River. 



The land where no water is. Artificial spring. Mixed drink. 

ceives the innumerable company of fools and 
their companions, and those who have led them 
in their ways of folly, to the place prepared for 
them ; where their unavailing prayers for water, 
*vater, are offered In a "land where no water is." 

DEATH RIVER 

rises near the upper terminus of the Black Val- 
ley Railroad. It has two branches, one of them 
rising in Sippington, near the boundary-line ; the 
other in Medicineville directly under the depot at 
that place. These, uniting, seem to run in the 
same direction with the Crystal River. On this 
account it has been contended that its general 
course was nearly the same, and that, as its waters 
contained a certain exhilarating quality, they were 
to be preferred to the waters of the aforesaid 
stream ; but observation has proved that this 
river soon diverges from the one to which it 
seems to run parallel, at first gradually, but after- 
ward rapidly, until its general course is in the 
opposite direction. It has also been ascertained 
that the source of this river is not a natural 
spring, but that its waters are forced up by an 
artificial process, in connection with which they 
become " mixed drink." 

The lovers of the waters of this river have 
taken much pains to make them famous, and to 
build up villages upon its banks; but all these 



"Death River. 81 

Desolations. Fog clouds. Miasmas. Floating corpses. 

attempts have failed ; and the course of the river 
can now be traced by the desolations of the coun- 
try through which it passes, and the cloud of 
black fog which hangs continually over it to the 
place where it disappears in the clouds of smoke 
and lava, near the lower terminus of the Black 
Valley Road. As this river diverges from the 
Crystal River, its waters grow more and more 
poisonous ; and the fog-cloud which hangs over it 
is charged with miasmas which produce disease 
and death. As its waters are the cause of death 
to those who use them, and the receptacle of the 
dead who fall, or are thrown into them, it has 
received the name of Death River. 

All along the course of the river, the dead 
may be seen floating in ghastly forms. As the 
river flows on, these bodies accumulate ; so that 
at the mouth, where it runs, close by the great 
Black Valley Road, near its lower terminus, the 
accumulated dead present a sight horrible to be- 
hold. By an examination of these bodies, it can 
be determined at what place they were thrown 
into the river. Those that have floated down 
from Fightington exhibit bruises and gashes in- 
dicative of the causes of their death. Those from 
Prisonton sometimes have ropes upon their necks; 
and their " gallows countenances " show plainly 
from whence they have come. The corpses from 
Beggarstown have their rags cleaving to them ; 
and the ghastly wounds of those from Demonland 



82 Death River. 



Symbolic monsters. Sucking disks. Perfection of terror. 

sometimes indicate the very instruments that were 
used to plunge them into the river. 

All the fish and living things in this river, are 
of the monstrous class, and their representative 
symbols are found in the shark, the alligator, the 
bloodsucker, and especially that most terrible of 
all monsters 

THE DEVIL FISH, 

of which a distinguished scientist says, " the arms 
form a pair of powerful pincers at their extreme 
ends, and are furnished for their whole length 
with two rows of perfect sucking-disks, or some 
two thousand air-pumps, the edges are cut into 
sharp saw-like teeth, as hard as steel, and these 
are buried in the flesh of its prey. With all 
these appliances, it could easily reach a distance of 
twenty-five feet, and bring the body of a man to its 
mouth, where with its powerful iron-like beak it 
crushes the helpless form, and swallows or drinks 
it down. It sometimes measures more than forty 
feet."* 

Victor Hugo says of this monster : 

" If terror was the object of its Creator, it is 
perfection. The devil fish has no muscular organ- 
ization, no menacing cry, no breastplate, no horn, 
no dart, no tail with which to hold or bruise, no 
cutting fins or wings with claws, no prickles, no 
sword, no electric discharge, no venom, no bones, 
no blood, no flesh. It is soft and flabby — a skin 

* Prof. Verrill. 



Devil Fish. 83 



Victor Hugo. The Devil Fish. 

with nothing inside of it. Its under surface is 
yellowish; its upper earthy; its dusty hue can 
neither be imitated nor explained ; it might be 
called a beast made of ashes, which inhabits the 
water. Irritated, it becomes violet. It is a spi- 
der in form ; a chamelion in coloration. Seized 
by this animal, you enter into the beast ; the 
hydra incorporates itself with the man ; the man 
is amalgamated with the hydra. You become one. 
The tiger can only devour }~ou ; the devil fish 
stvallows you. He draws you to him, into him, and 
bound and helpless, you feel yourself slowly 
emptied into this frightful sac, which is a mon- 
ster. To be eaten alive is more than terrible ; but 
to be drunk alive is inexpressible ! " 

Specimens of the devil fish are preserved in 
Alcohol. 




CHAPTER VI. 

Attempts to check the business of the Black Valley Road — 
The Licensed Trains. 



^fePf 



%v%M HEN it was found that the population of 
the Black Valley Country was becoming 
*^^ very large, and the business of the road 
was rapidly increasing, and that the cloud which 
hung over the country was extending over the 
surrounding regions, fears began to prevail lest the 
whole neighborhood should come under the cloud. 
This fear was much increased when it was found 
that the cloud extended just in proportion to the 
increase of the business of the road. 

In consequence of this apprehension, a sj^stem 
of legislation was commenced, for the purpose 
of checking the business of the road. 

One plan proposed was to lay a heavy tax 

upon all who run trains over this road, and then 

give them a license to run as many trains as they 

chose; providing always that the cars should be 

84 



Black Valley Railroad. 85 

Licenses a failure. Laws evaded. 

in (food order, and that none but respectable people 
should be permitted to travel in them, and that the 
cars should not run on Sundays, or after ten 
o'clock at night. Conductors were required to be 
men of standing and respectability. 

By this plan it was thought that poor people 
would be prevented from travelling on the road; 
as they would not have the means of purchasing 
tickets at the high prices that they must be sold 
for. It was also thought that the licensed trains 
would run into the unlincensed ones, and smash 
them up or throiv them from the track. 

When this plan was tried, it was found to work 
very differently from what was anticipated. 

As the track run through a country that could 
not be easily watched and guarded, and which 
was always kept in good running condition by the 
licensed trains^ and travelling made respectable by 
the protection which the law gave it, a vast multi- 
tude of adventurers were found to be running 
trains for the special accommodation of the poorer 
classes of travellers, who were not able to ride in 
the licensed cars. It was also found, that many 
of the travellers in the licensed cars were con- 
tinually leaving them for the cheaper trains, es- 
pecially towards the loiver regions of the coun- 
try. It was also found that the licensed trains 
were continually running late at night, having 
contrived a plan for darkening the windows, 



86 Black Valley Country. 

Track to be torn up. Private rights. 

and muffling the wheels, so as to move without 
noise. 

When the working of this system, after many 
experiments and observations, became understood, 
a law was passed authorizing the tearing up of the 
track, and the total annihilation of the business of 
the road. The main point of the new law was, 
that men should not run public trains, for carry- 
ing travellers or freight over this road, and that 
the road itself, as a public road, should be 
destroyed, 

The law was carefully constructed, so as not 
to interfere with the rights of individuals who 
wished to travel in the Black Valley Country. It 
only forbade the running of public conveyances, 
and did not prevent any from travelling in their 
own private conveyance on a private way, clear to 
the volcano at the end of the road. They might 
even leap into the volcano ; but they must not 
make it a business to carry other people, and more 
especially with the protection and authority of 
law. 

Nearly upon the boundary line between the 
Black Valley Country and Fountainland was a 
large plantation, owned by a corporation which 
was very friendly to virtue and good order, and 
also to all good enterprises. It took great in- 
terest hi schools, and established the first free 
school system known in history. It was a friend 



State Legislation. 87 

Plantation. Liberties to be preserved. Colonies. 

of liberty, too, and was very apt to say severe 
things about those who deprived their fellow-men 
of their freedom. 

The ancestors of the people who owned this 
corporation had fought and bled and died for 
liberty ; and, as they could not secure it, they fled 
from the country in which they were born, 
and, sailing across a wide sea, landed where the 
"breaking waves dashed high," and purchased 
this plantation mainly for the purpose of enjoying 
freedom to worship God as they chose, and make 
themselves generally useful. 

Soon after they had got this plantation in work- 
ing order, they began to have trouble with the 
Black Valley Railroad. The Black Valley men 
on the plantation established several branch-roads, 
connecting with the great Central Road through 
the Black Valley Country. This was much against 
the approbation of the owners, and caused them a 
great deal of trouble. As thej^ did not wish to 
infringe on the liberties of individuals, they did 
not at first absolutely forbid the running of these 
branches from the plantation. Finding that mul- 
titudes of the youth were going down to the 
Black Valley Country upon this road, and that 
the number increased every year, they attempted 
to check the business of the road by a stringent 
system of licensing the trains. 

This, however, did not work ; and the matter 
kept growing worse and worse ; until at length 



88 State Legislation. 

Metropolitan — versus Rural. Proclamation. 

they came to the conclusion to stop the whole 
thing by tearing up all the tracks, and patting all 
the depot masters in prison. 

When the government of the plantation issued 
this order, there was much commotion. The 
Black Valley men complained, and said that the 
government was a fool, and was controlled by 
women and the priests, who were always med- 
dling with that which was none of their business. 

The Crystal River stage men were in ecstasies 
at what had occurred ; and many who had been 
carried into slavery upon the Black Valley Road 
could not restrain their joy. 

When this edict was issued, the people of the 
plantation generally submitted ; and the depots 
of the Black Valley Road were nearly all closed 
up, with the exception of those in the metropolitan 
village of the plantation. As that village had 
great influence upon the other villages, and was 
the place where the government was accustomed to 
meet every year in a great and general council, 
there w r as much grief at the conduct of the 
Black Valley men, and in view of the unpleasant 
state of things the government of the plantation 
issued the following address : 

" To the inhabitants of the Metropolitan Village: 

" The government is pained to find that } r ou do 
not intend to obey the law which has been en- 
acted for the suppression of the business of the 



Black Valley Railroad. 89 

Law and Order. Metropolitan Statistics. 

Black Valley Railroad ; and the more pained, 
as it remembers that you are professedly the 
friends of law and order. But a few years ago, 
you even caused to be enforced a very wicked 
law, because you were professedly a law- 
abiding community; and the streets of your vil- 
lage were thronged with many thousand witnesses 
of your zeal in executing a law which you your- 
selves declared was very iniquitous, and even 
against the higher law. Now, you are refusing 
to execute a law which aims to remove one of the 
greatest evils from your midst. The road which 
the government has issued its order to have 
stopped has, in ten years, carried a number equal 
to forty-two per cent of your population down to 
Prisonton. From official records, it appears that, 
out of four hundred thousand who went to Prison- 
ton in seventeen years, two hundred and seventy-five 
thousand of them went there on the Black Valley 
Road ; and that during the same time tiventy-eight 
thousand persons were picked up in a helpless con- 
dition by the side of the same road, and carried to 
their homes battered, bruised and begrimed, to 
the great grief and astonishment of broken-hearted 
wives and parents. Though but one-sixth of the 
population of the plantation reside in your village, 
more than one-half of those who go to Prison- 
ton are from your place, and have gone down 
on the road which the government has ordered to 



90 Black Valley Railroad* 

Statistics continued. Great Tea-party. 

be destroyed. Every year two millions of dollars 
are spent to promote virtue and order, by the 
schools which the government is sustaining; 
while you are spending more than that sum in 
carrying men directly away from the influences 
which these schools are designed to exert. In 
these schools are tiventy-five thousand pupils 
whom the government is trying to carry up to 
virtue and respectability, while your road is car- 
rying thirty thousand down to Beggarstown and 
Prisonton, and other places in the Black Valley 
Country. 

" Your road is against all the interests of the 
plantation; and therefore its business has been 
ordered to be stopped. The government is not 
unmindful of your importance as a great village. 

"Your merchant princes and your great and 
good men, and your great and good deeds are not 
forgotten. It is known how you fought for the 
liberty and independence of the plantation, and 
other plantations in our neighborhood, when our 
liberties were in danger from a foreign foe. The 
great tea-party you gave to our common enemy — 
you furnishing water and they furnishing tea — is 
called to mind with pride. (Oh that you knew 
the advantages of water as well now as in those 
days of your well-earned fame !) None of these 
things are forgotten. 

"But, notwithstanding your good deeds and 



Black Valley Railroad. 91 

Laws must be executed. No partiality. 

your noble history, you cannot be permitted to 
break" the laws. Your power as a municipal gov- 
ernment, is given to you by the laws of the plan- 
tation. You are only an agent for executing the 
laws. What power has been given to you can at 
any time be taken back ; and, if you will not act 
as my agent in executing the laws, there must 
be an agency that will act. Nor can you be al- 
lowed to be partial in the execution of the laws; 
nor can the men whom you appoint to attend, to 
this business be allowed to have their favorites. 

" Facts have come to light showing, that while 
you caused to be arrested annually nearly twenty 
thousand travellers upon this Black Valley Road, 
a large number of whom had been thrown out of 
the trains, and picked up in a helpless condition 
along the track in your streets, you have allowed 
nearly two thousand masters of -depots upon the 
road to pursue their criminal business with im- 
punity. You have taken the weak and the help- 
less, and let the strong men go. It is, moreover, 
understood, that many of the men whom you 
have appointed to execute the laws are patrons of 
the road which is running contrary to law, and 
that some of them take frequent excursions upon 
that road, and have even been seen below Topers- 
ville, with their badges of office still on. 

" Instead of helping to close up these depots 
some of them are doing what they can to mak,, 



92 Black Valley Railroad. 

Metropolitan versus State laws. Approbation of good citizens. 

them respectable ; and that in two ways ; first, by 
patronizing them; and, second, by picking up 
and putting out of sight the miserable objects 
that have been ejected from the trains. 

" You must be reminded, too, that when the law 
forbidding the running of the Black Valle}^ Road 
was first enacted, the government of your village 
issued ' licenses to all conductors and stockholders of 
good moral character,' thus in effect nullifying the 
law. 

" In constructing the law, the most able and 
skilful and learned men were consulted. As you 
were the first to violate and trample upon it, you 
must be brought to submission ; and, when this is 
done, the government of the plantation will look 
after the smaller villages, unless, seeing what 
is done for you, they conclude to look after 
themselves. 

u The government is happy to find, in doing 
this, that it has the approbation of so many of 
the order-loving citizens of your place whose prop- 
erty is endangered by the Black Valley Road, and 
whose sons are tempted by it to travel in the 
Black Valley Country. The government would 
remind you, too, that it once hung a distinguished 
teacher in one of the great schools in your vicin- 
ity, because he broke a law wdiose penalty was 
death. 
"The Liw which you are violating was not made 



State, versus City. 93 

Law good. Must be enforced. Great rejoicing. 

rashly ; it was the result of many thoughts and 
much deliberation. It has had the support of the 
great council for many years. It has already 
done much good, though not in your village, as 
the throngs of men and women in Beggarstown 
and Prisonton who have gone down over the road 
make painfully apparent. 

" In fine, you must submit. The general govern- 
ment is your master, and cannot give up its au- 
thority over you ; and, if you cannot enforce the 
law, the government must take the matter into 
its own hands. The law must be executed.''' 

At the conclusion of the public reading of this 
address, there was a great murmuring and shaking 
of fists and deliverance of oaths among the Black 
Valley men. The Crystal River stage men were 
again in ecstasies. Old Mr. Konshunts cried at 
the top of his voice, " All right ! " and a company 
of old travellers upon the Black Valley Road, 
who had just come out of the slavery of the 
Black Valley Country, called for three cheers, 
which were given in tones that were heard through- 
out the plantation. 

The laws against the aforesaid road began now 
to be thoroughly executed. Constables especially 
appointed for this object closed up many of the 
places where tickets were sold. 

As soon as this began to be thoroughly done, 
there was great excitement among the Black 



94 New Suggestions. 

Solicitude about public morals. Love of Liberty. Law amended. 

Valley men ; and a vigorous and united effort 
was made to have the law repealed, and, if this 
could not be done, to have it so altered that the 
business of the road tuould not be interfered with 
or the public morals injured by having a law that 
could not be executed. 

They declared, that in spite of all the represen- 
tations to the contrary, the law prohibiting the 
business of the Black Valley Road, and closing up 
the depots upon it, greatly increased the number 
of travellers. Many, they said, who never before 
travelled on that road, and even were greatly 
opposed to it, were procuring tickets not for the 
purpose of use, but to show their love of liberty, 
and that, while the watermen "had all the law 
they wanted, the friends and patrons of the road 
got all the rides, and sold all the tickets they 
wanted to." 

By various united and persevering efforts the 
law was at length amended so as to suit the 
Black Valley men and that class of Fountainland 
men who lived upon the borders of the Black Val- 
ley Country, and occasionally took excursions upon 
the road, or speculated in its stocks, or wanted some 
favor from the corporation or thought it good policy 
to alter the law. 

Under the amended law, all depots were to be 
constructed so as to have the appearance of Gro- 
cery stores or Apothecary shops ; and all tickets 



Lagerbrew & Co. 
Respiratory Food and Medicines. 

jjiiifcftSBajAi.*! 




A licensed Accommodation Black Valley Station House. Invalids 
taken in for Idiot Flats and the Great Desert. Backside entrance. 



Law Amended. 97 



Excursion tickets. Business improved. Stock rises. 

were to be called Health Excursion Tickets, to be 
sold only to respectable people. 

Under this new arrangement, the business of 
the corporation was resumed with renewed vigor. 
All the places upon the road increased rapidly in 
population, while the stockholders and employees 
increased in wealth. 

Of the results of this new arrangement the 
reader will learn farther on. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Prosperity of the Road — Good Men Defend It. 




^EAR after year the mischiefs of the Black 
Valley Railroad continued to increase. 
The great depot at Sippington was from 
time to time enlarged. Vast sums of money were 
expended by the corporation in attempting to 
maintain the reputation, and show the great 
value and usefulness of the road. 

When in process of time, the business of the 
road on one of its great branches, was likely 
again to be interrupted by a legal injunction, 
which those who were unfavorable to it were 
trying to procure, the corporation emplo} r ed at 
great expense the services of distinguished and 
eloquent counsellors and lawyers, to prove that 
the opposers of the road were crazy men, who had 
98 



Black Valley Railroad. 99 

Good men defend it. Ascendency at the polls. Defence circulated. 

" water on the brain." Old records were searched ; 
and old friends and travellers on the road were 
consulted. 

By this method it was attempted to be proved 
that the road was useful, and even indispensable 
to the welfare of the community ; that multitudes 
who travelled on it were much benefited, if they 
did not travel too often and too far ; that the " res- 
piratory organs " were sometimes much strength- 
ened by occasional excursions ; and that the stock- 
holders and depot masters had their " inalienable 
rights," which could not be interfered with in the 
way proposed, by men whose brains had been so 
affected by water. 

Moreover, an attempt was made to prove that 
the owners and patrons of the Black V alley Rail- 
road were in the ascendency at the polls, and 
could outvote the fanatics who were trying to in- 
jure the road ; and that, under a government by 
the people, this consideration settled the question. 

When this eloquent and able defence of the 
road had been made, the corporation took measures 
to give it the most extensive circulation. It was 
published in golden letters and illuminated hand- 
bills, and sent to all the depots upon the road ; 
where it was posted up, and read to the thronging 
multitudes usually assembled at those places. 
Great meetings were held, and glowing speeches 
were made, extolling the action of the corporation 



100 Black Valley Railroad. 

Young men admire the defence Great Excursion. 

in procuring so able a defence of a much-abused 
business, so likely to become infamous without 
such counteracting influence. 

This famous apology was not only circulated in 
the depots of the road, but large numbers were 
sent up to Fountainland for gratuitous circulation. 
Its eloquent diction and ingenuity, as well as the 
fame of the authors, led many to read it who ac- 
cepted it as a triumphant defence of the business 
of the Black Valley Road. Multitudes of young 
men read it with an admiration bordering upon 
enthusiasm. In order the more effectually to show 
their admiration of it, they got up large excursion 
parties for the Black Valley Country. At the 
great depot at Sippington, they had a grand gath- 
ering and reunion ; and great multitudes of them, 
for the first time, took an excursion far down on 
the Black Valley Road. 

Under this wise and efficient management of 
the road, the wealth of the corporation rapidly in- 
creased through the whole country, until the 
amount became almost fabulous. The annual 
amount of fares was over seven hundred millions 
of dollars. The employees of the road numbered 
more than five hundred thousand; and many of 
the stockholders became millionaires. The popu- 
lation of all the places upon the road increased in 
proportion to the increase of the business of the 
company. 

With the great increase of the population of 



Black Valley Railroad. 101 

Rings. All legal action opposed. Elections. 

the Black Valley Country, the condition of the 
country became more and more the object of study 
by statesmen and philanthropists. In connection 
with this stud}*, the fact came to light, that the 
corporation of the Black Valley Railroad was ex- 
erting a controlling influence on all the surround- 
ing region. Stockholders, depot masters, and ticket 
sellers made up what was known in the whole 
community as a " Ring," which bade defiance to 
all law and all restraint. 

While these Rings, which increased with the 
increasing business of the company, professed that 
they regretted the numerous accidents that oc- 
curred on the Black Valley Road, they earnestly 
opposed all legislation which looked towards re- 
straining their business. All legal action, they 
said, ran into politics, unless it was legal action in 
favor of running trains under some sort of super- 
vision by the government which would not interfere 
with their business. 

Depots upon the road were the headquarters of 
the Rings. At these places, instructions were 
given to voters ; who could be easily gathered in 
great numbers, by a promise of free tickets upon 
the road. Whenever meetings were to be held, 
special trains were run for the accommodation of 
the Rings. On election days, also, special trains 
were run, to carry the friends of the corporation 
to the polls, where they were looked after by gen- 
tlemen of the Rings, who sometimes carried their 



102 Black Valley Railroad. 

Help from an unexpected quarter. The " providential man." 

good offices so far as to guide and lead them quite 
to the ballot-box, and aid them in depositing their 
votes. 

While these things were transpiring, and the 
managers of the Rings were rejoicing in the pros- 
perity and prospects of the Road, and great and 
good men were helping them in clearing away the 
obstructions which the " water fanatics " had 
placed upon it, in a locality to which the attention 
of the whole country was directed, help came to 
the water men from an unexpected quarter. 

Far up in the Fountain! and Country, where the 
invigorating waters of the Crystal River were 
imparting health of mind and body to all the peo- 
ple, a man with level head and strong arm was 
pursuing his humble calling, and meditating upon 
the great benefits which would result from the in- 
troduction of the Crystal River waters into the 
famous Crreat Desert of the Black Valley Country, 
the miserable condition of which he had from his 
youth, made a subject of serious study. 

Suddenly this " providential man " was called to 
the superintendence of a great national depart- 
ment of business, in which the whole country had 
a deep interest, and at such a time that, 

" A child could understand 
The de'il had business on his hand." 

When he entered upon the duties of his great 
office he was invited to take up his residence upon 



Black Valley Railroad. 103 

Lincoln, Wilson, Howard, Foot and others. 

a high eminence in a famous " White House " 
where he could directly overlook an important 
section of the Black Valley Country lying very 
near to him, and having very important relations 
to the business now committed to his care. 

Here he began immediately to call attention to 
the virtues of the Crystal River, and by the con- 
stant use of its healthful and invigorating waters 
he kept his head level and his hand steady, while 
everything around him was in a state of uncer- 
tainty and suspense, as when a tornado is moving 
through a great forest, and ancient trees and 
buildings are falling into promiscuous confusion 
along its track. 

To the great company of subordinates under 
him, some of whom were occupying positions and 
controlling movements upon which the welfare of 
the nation, and the lives of thousands of people 
depended, he recommended the constant use of 
the Crystal River water, and warned them against 
excursions into the Black Valley Country, always 
being careful to enforce his advice by his example. 

Those who accepted this advice, and acted upon 
it, found their heads level and their arms strong 
for the most valiant deeds; while those who re- 
jected it, and took occasional excursions into the 
Black Valley Country, found their capacities much 
impaired, and sometimes quite gone. Some who 
had lost their capacities by travel in the Black 
Valley Country, found them restored by the use of 



104 Great Obstructions. 

War closes. Black Valley stock falls. Crystal River rises. 

the Crystal River water, so that, like Sampson, 
they carried away the gates of great cities, and 
pulled down the pillars of great temples, which 
the Philistines had crossed the last ditch to 
defend. 

As a result of all these experiments, running 
through the most important period of the country's 
history, including the sudden summons of the 
nation's leader from his high place to a higher, by 
a bullet from a depot of the Black Valley Road, 
and events immediately succeeding, which the 
intelligent reader will call to mind, a new 
and much more troublesome obstruction was 
encountered by the Black Valley Road, as if 
the vapors of all the lakes of the Crystal River 
Country had been condensed into snow and laid 
across the track, requiring shovelling, as well as 
the shuffling and shoving hitherto so much relied 
upon to keep the trains in motion at their usual 
speed. The stock of the Black Valley Road was 
much depreciated (except in the estimate of stock- 
holders), and the stock in the Crystal River water 
company was doubled in the market of the world. 



■»!lT!l!fll!!,il'! , !'ff, l l'!llip''!i" ! !li]H!i!f'riiiirTirM!!ii 1 iirrnnfi 




A peculiar Institution run into by the Black Valley Railroad, with an acci- 
dental President on board Great damage to the Road. 
A National Memorial Picture. 



.s.>. /£:■' 




CHAPTER VIII. 




Renewed Attempts to Destroy the Road — Water and 
Forcing bistruments — Flooding of Sippington % 



HILE statesmen and philanthropists were 
investigating this subject, it was discovered 
that the great cloud which hung over the 
Black Valley Country was casting a deep shadow 
over all the surrounding region. The mutterings 
of distant thunder, and the vivid lightning flashes 
indicated to those who were watching the cloud, a 
coming tempest, which they predicted would 
sweep like a whirlwind over the whole surround- 
ing country. 

While these investigations were going on, and 
multitudes were watching the cloud, as it rolled 
up black and terrific in the distance, a very im- 
portant discovery w^as made in regard to the action 
107 



108 Black Valley Railroad. 

Public sentiment sustains law. 

of water on the Black Valley Railroad. Breaches 
made in the road by water it was found could not 
be repaired. A wash-out, it was ascertained, caused 
a permanent and dangerous weakness at the point 
where it occurred. 

It was discovered, too, that where water was 
flowing freely, the road could be easily broken 
and cut by forcing instruments, so that the trains 
could not pass. Lifting and prying and forcing 
under ivater, was found to be effective in opening 
huge breaches in the road. Forcing instruments 
that had been bent and battered while in use where 
there was no ivater, were found to do admirable 
execution in connection with water. 

The power of water having been shown by 
several experiments, it was determined to try the 
efforts of a flood upon the Elack Valley Railroad. 
Let us have a flood, said all hands. 

When the water scheme had been determined 
upon, every man from Fountainland agreed to 
assist, and be taxed for the construction of a vast 
canal, which should turn the great Crystal River 
upon the whole Black Valley Country. 

Sippington was chosen as the strategic point to 
be first flooded, that being the place from which 
all travellers upon the road took their first 
excursions. 

Numerous experiments having proved this plan 
to be feasible, a company was organized to con- 
struct the canal. Everybody was invited to join 



Black Valley Railroad. 109 

Flood. Churches help. Canal. Opposition. 

this great water company. Men, women, and chil- 
dren were enlisted in 'it. Information about the 
flooding scheme, and the experiments which had 
been tried upon the road by water, were exten- 
sively circulated. The churches in Fountainland 
were opened for public meetings on this water 
question. Sermons were preached and addresses 
made ; and multitudes proceeded to join the 
water company. Only a few churches stood 
aloof from this movement, and these, it was com- 
monly found, w r ere located in that portion of 
Fountainland which bordered on the Black Valley 
Country, and whose members took occasional ex- 
cursions on the Black Valley Road, or were the 
owners of stock in the corporation. 

Several years were occupied in constructing 
the great canal. It was built at immense cost, 
and with a vast amount of labor. In the heat of 
the day and in the chills of the night many labored 
cheerfully, bearing the burden of this work. As 
the work went on, the stockholders and depot 
masters of the Black Valley Road became much 
alarmed. In all the depots of the road the water 
men were set upon as fanatics. A rumor was 
started that they were organizing an army with 
which to invade the Black Valley Country ; that 
they were to be armed with icicles, instead of mus- 
kets, and that there was so much water on their 
brains that they could march through the great 
" Black Valley Desert " without canteens. 



110 Great Canal. 



Gates opened. Ridicule. Water increases. 

At length the great canal was completed. To 
prevent alarm the gates were opened gradually. 
Gently at first the water flowed along by the 
Black Valley Road. As it flowed upon the dry 
and thirsty land, it was absorbed, and disappeared 
without any apparent effect. The Black Valley 
men now smiled at the folly of the fanatics who 
were attempting to injure the road by so harmless 
a process. 

Onward the water kept flowing. In time the 
dry ground was saturated. Water began to stand 
upon the surface of the ground. At first a pool, 
then a pond, then a lake, then a sea. In the 
cellars of all the houses in Sippington a spring 
broke out, producing an inundation. Empty beer 
casks and wine bottles were set afloat, and their 
owners were astonished at the number of these ob- 
jects in their cellars. Most of them said that 
these casks and bottles were from Medicineville, 
and were placed in their cellars on trial, and that 
water was a serious damage to them. Some said 
the water fanatics were drowning people in their 
own cellars. 

Through the great canal, water came flowing 
and rushing in increased quantities ; so that the 
windows of heaven seemed to be wide open. On 
all sides it was water, water, water. 

In this condition of things, while water was 
flowing all around, and the great river from Foun- 
tainland seemed to be discharging itself upon the 



Black Valley Railroad. Ill 

Law and moral sentiment. Flood increases. 

depot at Sippington, and the Black Valley men 
were ridiculing the flood, and laughing at the 
fanaticism of the water-men, who were spending 
their time upon this water-scheme, it was deter- 
mined to try the effect of forcing upon the founda- 
tions of the depot. Some forcing instruments 
wiiich had been much battered by use on these 
same foundations, when no water was flowing, it 
was found started them now with the utmost ease. 
Instantly they yielded to the pressure, and floated 
away in the flood. Forcing-bars and grappling- 
irons, it was found could be used under water with 
telling effect. The side of the depot towards the 
flood began to settle ; and soon the whole building 
was afloat. Simultaneously with this, the gates of 
the great canal were thrown wide open. 

A new impulse was now given to the flood. 
Some said the ocean had got loose, and was run- 
ning into Sippington, or that an earthquake must 
be lifting up the bottom of the great Crystal Sea 
in Fountainland, so terrible was the pouring on of 
the flood. 

Under the united action of water and the pres- 
sure of the forcing instruments, the great depot 
went down ; and the track of the Black Valley 
Road was swept away, and Sippington for a time 
was completely under water. 

Some incidents connected with this flood are 
worthy of notice. Most of the churches in Sip- 
pington W'ere turned around or carried away from 



112 Black Valley Railroad. 

Flood continues. Incidents. Dr. Oldwine. 

their old locations, which were so thoroughly 
washed that no one could point out the places 
where they originally stood. Dr. Oldwine's church, 
where a large and fashionable congregation of Sip- 
pingtonians were accustomed to worship, was 
floated quite out upon the stream. 

In this house, many had heard Dr. Oldwine 
berate the imprudent measures of the water com- 
pany, declaring that their organization was both 
unwise and unscriptural. As the old meeting- 
house was seen floating away from its ancient 
position, a general shout went up, which was heard 
far up into the Fountainland county. 

"I am glad to see the old ark afloat," cried a 
hard-looking man from Topersville ; " for it was in 
that house that I resolved to take my first excur- 
sion upon the Black Valley Road." Throngs of 
men from other places upon the road, who had 
joined the water company, clapped their hands, 
and shouted for joy, saying that they once belonged 
to the congregation worshipping in that house, 
and distinctly remembered Dr. Oldwine's denun- 
ciation of the great water-scheme for destroying 
the Black Valley Road. 

The parsonage, as well as the meeting-house, 
was floated away from its old position. Dr. Old- 
wine was much alarmed when he found that his 
house was surrounded with water, and that the 
foundations were giving waj T . The beer-casks and 
wine-bottles which floated out from his cellar ex- 



Results of the Flood. 113 

Right at last. Health improved. People happy. 

cited much mirth. The doctor himself was seen 
clinging to a wine-cask when his house floated 
away from its foundations. As the stream carried 
him along, his gray hairs could be seen spreading 
like a silver disk upon the water. " You are going 
in the right direction at last," exclaimed a trav- 
eller from the Black Valley Country, who in his 
youth was accustomed to hear his hearty beratings 
of the water fanatics, who, he said, " were pre- 
tending to be wise above what was written/' * 

In connection with this flood, the inhabitants 
of Sippington made an important discovery. 
They found that their gardens were enriched by 
the great overflow of water, and that the cleaning 
out of their cellars had greatly improved the 
health of the place. Many that had been feeble 
became strong ; and many that were sick became 
well. Some said an angel must have troubled the 
pools in the cellars, so numerous and so striking 
were cases of healing which had taken place. 
The irrigated gardens and lands became mar- 
vellously productive. Dahlias and lilies and roses 
of every hue, and fruits pleasant to the taste, 
became abundant. 

The people became happy and contented. 
Multitudes of young men who had been accus- 
tomed to spend their time at the great depot, and 
their money for excursions on the Black Valley 
Road, now remained at their homes. A genera 

* The Oldwine family is said to be nearly extinct. 



114 



Improvements. 



Wealth increases. 



Churches and schools. 



tion of laborers grew up to take the place of 
loafers. The wealth of the place rapidly in- 
creased. Churches and school houses were erected. 
Sabbath-schools and common-schools were crowded 
with learners ; and the town soon became famous 
in all the surrounding region. 



..^^^ 




A traveller in the Black Valley Country returns from the Great Desert, and 

lights up his heme by reading about the Crystal River and the great 

flood. His wife says: (i This is heaven." 





CHAPTER IX. 

The Sippingtonia?is vote to annex their town to Fountain- 
land — Great Disturbance at Medicineville — Black 
Valley Railroad Men arrested for Violation of the 
Law — Trial — Speeches — Verdict. 

"N view of this new condition of things at 
Sippington, a great public meeting was 
held, to consider the question of changing 
the name of the town. At this meeting it was pro- 
posed to call the place Teetotalton. This was ob- 
jected to, on the ground that it did not convey the 
leading idea of the place, and also that it was not 
classical. Another name proposed was Water- 
ville. This was objected to, on the ground that 
the place was rapidly growing in wealth and pop- 
ulation, and would soon probably become a large 
city. 

While this discussion was going on, a motion 
was made to annex the town to Fountainland, and 

"5 



116 Annexation. 



Good society. Rings. Old name dropped. Result. 

come under the government and laws of the place. 
In favor of this, it was urged that Fountainland 
had a high reputation in all the surrounding 
country, that it had good society, and a good gov- 
ernment and laws, and that its schools and 
churches were numerous and in a flourishing con- 
dition, and that, by annexing to them, all taxes 
for crime and pauperism would be avoided ; and 
the united votes of the two places would outnum- 
ber the votes of the great Black Valley Railroad 
Ring, now so formidable to the well-being and ex- 
istence of the government. After a full discus- 
sion, it was unanimously voted that Sippington 
should be annexed to Fountainland, and that the 
old name should be entirely dropped. 

After the annexation, the population and wealth 
of the two places united rapidly increased. 
Schools and churches were prosperous and full, 
while prisons and almshouses were quite emptj'. 
People from the surrounding regions moved into 
the place in great numbers; and all branches of 
business increased with a rapidity never before 
known. This rapid increase of wealth and popu- 
lation drew many adventurers to the place. Mer- 
chants, mechanics, and laborers of every descrip- 
tion, flocked to this fast-rising commonwealth. 

Among the new adventurers to the place were 
multitudes of agents of the Black Valle3 r Railroad 
from Medicineville and Tippleton, where great 
numbers had been thrown out of business by the 



Laivs Evaded. 117 



Excursions. Young men emigrating. Investigations. 

flooding of Sippington. They came with the hope 
of prosecuting their old trade under a new name. 
They commonly occupied underground rooms in 
the most unobserved streets. Their plan was, to 
get up excursions into the Black Valley Country, 
by selling passes and tickets to such as could be 
persuaded to procure them. Young men who 
could be enticed to purchase the passes were con- 
veyed to the main road in stages and coaches that 
could not be distinguished from the ordinary car- 
riages of the place. 

By this method, large numbers of young men 
were found to be leaving the place, and emigrating 
into the Black Valley Country. Numerous fam- 
ilies were in great affliction by the sudden disap- 
pearance of some of their number. Parents in 
search of their lost sons would often hear of them 
at Rowdyville, Fightington, Prisonton, Delirium- 
ton, and Demonland, and sometimes among the 
dead that had been thrown out along the Black 
Valley Road. 

When these facts began to come to light, it was 
determined that this subject should be looked into, 
and the whole business promptly stopped by the 
efficient and thorough execution of the laws of the 
commonwealth. The police were directed to as- 
certain the places where this business was carried 
on, and the names of the parties engaged in it. 

When this investigation was commenced, there 
was great astonishment to find how many families 



118 Cases Looked Up. 

Facts brought out. Clock. Property spent. Pet lamb sold. 

had gone down to the Black Valley Country, 
through the agency of these depots. A number 
of families Were found where the mother was 
keeping the children from starvation by begging, 
and taking in washing, while her husband was 
spending all his time and earnings in excursions 
upon the Black Valley Road. 

A family was found where the father had spent 
a large property at a Black Valley station 
house. His wife had died of trouble, after w r hich 
he sold the furniture in the house for tickets upon 
the Black Valley Road. When everything else 
was gone, he took the clock from the room where 
his w r ife had died, and where one of his children 
was sick, and was going to sell it, and his children 
cried so loud that the neighbors came in, and the 
case was reported to the police. 

Another case was found, where the father of a 
family had spent all his property — farm-stock 
and house — and had gone far down into the 
Black Valley Country, where he w^as frequently 
seen, sometimes at Topersville, sometimes at Wal- 
lowditch, Fightimjton, Deliriumton, and Demon- 
land. One day he came home and took the chil- 
dren's pet lamb, and sold it at a station house on 
the Black Valley Road, and then returned and 
drove his family all out of the miserable old house 
in which they were living. On account of this 
trouble the mother had died, and the children had 
been taken to the poorhouse. 




A family of a patron of the Black Valley Railroad Station House. The 
mother has been out to beg bread for her children. 




A patron of the Black Valley Railroad takes the family clock to sell at a Sta- 
tion House on the Road. 




A travellerin the Black Valley Country returns to his home and sells 
the children's pet lamb at a depot of the Black Valley Road. 




A little girl asks a Black Valley Depot master for some food for her sick father, 
™A ;<* t^U that her father is a Beerearstown man and can't be trusted. 



and is told that her father is a Beggarstown man 




A little girl watches all night with her siek mother wondering why her father 

does not come home. 



Black Valley Railroad. 127 

The poor girl and her mother. Father come home. 

A little girl was found, who went to a Black 
Valley depot master for some provision for the 
family, and was told that her father was a Beggars- 
town man, and could not be trusted any more, 
whereupon she went home crying, and told her 
mother what the depot master said to her, and 
then her mother cried, too, and told her that the 
depot master had a mortgage on their house, and 
they had got to move, and said she did not know 
where they should go. 

Another case came to notice, where a little girl 
had watched all night with her sick mother, and 
was several times heard saying, " Why don't father 
come home?" At midnight he came, and his 
little girl asked him if he would not go immedi- 
ately for the doctor ; and he told her she must 
stop crying, and that he was very tired and must 
have some sleep. Many other facts came to 
light. 

When the investigation was completed, it was 
resolved to act promptly. 

Everything being ready, the whole company of 
operators for the Black Valley Railroad was 
arrested. 

The following are the names of the parties 
taken up: Messrs. Moneygrip, Allclaws, Gambler, 
Brotheller, Neversober, Hategood, Allsham, Gripe- 
all, Ketchum, Cheatem, Rumfool, Beerbloat, Kill- 
em, Cidereross, Ginidiot, Flipsilly Toddy man, 
Nightwalker, Allfight, Loaferson, Foolem, Help- 



128 Law Enforced. 



Parties arrested. Law. Prisoners at court. 

devil, Killsoul, Skinem, Rob widow, Spitflame 
Blackmouth, Nighthowl, Aidrogue, Gallowsface, 
Scapeprison, Toperson, Breakhead, Burglerson, 
Lightfinger, Loveevil, Ditchfall, Wallowmire, 
Brandysmash, Clawpenny, Spitewater, Lagerswill, 
Slingslewed, McGreedy, Coinblood, Sharkemup, 
Staggerson, Brandugly, Babbleman, Breaklaw, 
Hellsend, Cutthroat, Swearstrong, Van Lecher. 

At the first session of the supreme court of the 
commonwealth, the parties arrested were brought 
forward for trial under the following statute : 
" Any person who shall he found selling or dispos- 
ing of passes or tickets upon the Black Valley Rail- 
road, or selling or owning stock in the same, shall he 
punished at the discretion of the supreme court of 
the commonwealth." 

At the appearance of the prisoners, who were 
led into court chained together, there was a smile 
and a look of satisfaction upon the faces of the 
immense crowd of citizens assembled to witness 
the trial. The case was tried before Chief Justice 
Evenhand, with Associate Judges Fairmind and 
Trueman. When the judges came into court, it 
was noticed that most of the prisoners turned 
pale, and that some fainted. Being called to plead 
guilty or not guilty, all arose, and plead not guilty ; 
though it w r as observed that those who had fainted 
were held up by their associates. 

The officer who attended the prisoners at the 



Trial of Prisoners. 129 

Council for prisoners Jury. Parties excused. 

dock was Mr. Ironhand, who wore the official 
badge of the State, and was attended by a military 
guard. 

The council for the prisoners was Mr. Wriggler, 
assisted by Mr. Wrenchlaw, Mr. Showfair, and 
Mr. Leadrabble, who were retained with large 
fees, to aid in conducting the trial. The council 
for the prosecution were Messrs. Trueline and 
Clearbrain. 

The jury was now sworn, and the indictment 
read by the clerk, the prisoners looking on with 
increased anxiety. Several jurors were now chal- 
lenged by the council for the prisoners. 

Mr. Teetotaller was objected to, on the ground 
that he had publicly and frequently expressed the 
opinion, " that every Black Valley Railroad man 
ought to be hung." (Excused.) 

Mr. Breakjug was objected to, on the ground 
that he had several times attempted to throw trains 
of the Black Valley Road off the track, by placing 
obstructions in the way, and that he once horse- 
whipped a depot master almost to death for fre- 
quently selling his son tickets on the Black Valley 
Road. (Excused.) 

Mr. Drinkwater was objected to, because he was 
prejudiced, having often said that all travellers on 
the Black Valley Road were fools. (Not excused.) 

Mr. Killdevil was objected to, because he had 
said, " that, in his opinion, the Black Valley Rail- 
road was built and owned by the devil, and that 



130 Trial of Prisoners. 

Parties excused. Jury sworn. Witnesses. 

he wished that all connected with it might be 
roasted in the fire at the end. (Not excused.) 

The council for the commonwealth objected to 
Mr. Beerman, on the ground that ho had often 
sold tickets on the road. (Excused.) 

Mr. Whiteblood was objected to, because he 
was apt to faint, and feared that if the case should 
go against the prisoners, it would be too much for 
him. (Excused.) 

Mr. Helpdeath was objected to, on the ground 
that he was a stockholder in the Black Valley 
Road. (Excused.) 

The jury was here filled, and sworn in the case. 
The following is the list : Mr. Trueman, Noshamer, 
Drinkwater, Shunbad, Steadyman, Neverdrunk, 
Handlenot, Loveorder, Neverrun, Truelight, Law- 
enforce, Killdevil. 

A very large number of witnesses were exam- 
ined in this trial — farmers, mechanics, merchants, 
physicians, lawyers, clergymen, miners, sailors, and 
soldiers — men of all classes and professions and 
countries. Besides these, a large number of wit- 
nesses from the Black Valley Country — men and 
women who had visited every place upon the road 
— were examined. 

After the protracted examination of witnesses, 
Mr. Trueline, the prosecuting officer of the com- 
monwealth, addressed the court in a powerful and 
convincing speech ; showing, 1st, The constitution- 
ality of the law ; 2d, Its adaptedness to the accom* 



Trial. 131 

Mr. Trueline's speech. Mr. Wriggler's reply. 

plishment of the object for which it was enacted; 
and, 3d, The necessity of its thorough execution, as 
a means of lifting the cloud which had so long 
hung over the Black Vallej r Country. "Let the 
law be executed," he said in conclusion, " and the 
smoke and cinders and fires which have blackened 
and burned and desolated the vast tract of country 
through which the Black Valley Railroad has 
passed, will immediately disappear, and the sun 
will shine out upon that dark land, with healing in 
its beams. Irrigation will enrich and repair every 
portion of the desolate country. The great Crys- 
tal River is waiting to pour itself over the desert, 
and make it blossom like a rose. Execute the law, 
and the work will soon be done. Millions of 
voices from every part of the Black Valley 
Country will unite in one grand chorus of thanks- 
giving. From this company of evil-doers, now 
prisoners at the bar, let none escape. The execu- 
tion of the law will give an effectual check to the 
vast business which they represent." 

Mr. Wriggler, in behalf of the prisoners, now 
addressed the court ; urging, 1st, That custom was 
in favor of the business for which the prisoners 
were on trial ; 2d, That many people were getting 
their living by it, and that it would be cruel to 
deprive them of this means of supporting their 
families ; 3d, That the business of the Black Val- 
ley Railroad was legitimate and useful, and that it 
was the abuse of it only which rendered it objec- 



132 Trial. 

Mr. Wriggler continues and concludes. 

tionable ; 4th, That the law had not been executed, 
and that the prisoners at the bar went into their 
business with the understanding that the law 
against it was a dead letter ; 5th, That the law 
was attempting to do what could only be accom- 
plished by moral suasion, and that if people washed 
to invest their capital in it, or get their living by 
it, the only way to prevent it was to persuade them 
not to do so ; 6th, That the law, instead of check- 
ing, had greatly increased the business of the road, 
and, if executed, would increase the business still 
more ; 7th, That the law was unconstitutional, and 
finally that the jury were to decide the question of 
law as well as the question of fact. " We live," 
said the earnest advocate in conclusion, " in a land 
of liberty. Our glorious eagle soars aloft, holding 
liberty in his claws as with hooks of steel; and 
woe to the bigots who shall attempt to wrest it 
from him ! His screams will wake up the people 
to come to the rescue. The Black Valley Country, 
of which we have heard so much will be lighted 
up by the gleam of millions of swords drawn in 
defence of libert}^. They will flash terror into the 
faces of all fanatics who attempt to break down 
by iniquitous laws any branch of business in which 
the people are engaged.''' 

At the conclusion of this speech, which occu- 
pied four hours, and was listened to wdth intense 
interest, and which its admirers said was like a 
succession of skyrockets sent into the air, a loud 



Triumphal Excursion. 133 

Mr. Wriggler exhausted — tries an excursion. Train on fire. 

shout went up from the friends of the prisoners 
who had gathered in great numbers to witness the 
trial. 

A large company of stockholders, depot masters, 
and Black Valley Railroad excursionists gathered 
around Mr. Wriggler ; who was so much exhausted 
by his effort, proposing as a means of relief from 
his exhaustion, as well as an expression of grati- 
tude, an excursion upon the road which he had so 
eloquently defended. The proposition was gladly 
accepted ; and a great company of those having an 
interest in the road started immediately on a grand 
excursion in the splendid elevated palatial cars now 
ready for the trip. 

As the road was now in good running order be- 
low Topersville (the flood having done no other 
damage to it except to cut off travel from the 
upper depot), everything was easily arranged, and 
the fireman ordered to put on steam. With flying 
colors and loud shouts the train started, and went 
roaring and tearing and thundering down the 
Black Valley Road with such speed that the 
wheels took fire and the whole train at length dis- 
appeared in a cloud of fire and smoke far down 
towards the lower end of the road. Most of the 
excursionists, it is understood, have never been 
heard of since ; several of the most distinguished 
defenders of the road died in the train ; others 
were thrown out along the road. Mr. Wriggler 



134 Excursion Ends. 

Mr. Wriggler. Dr. Brandycure. Mr. Leadrabble. Swift witness. 

went as far as Deliriumton, "where he was ejected 
for breaking the windows of the cars in a fit of 
delirium. He was afterwards picked up by a 
Fountainland stage, and carried back to his 
family. 

A distinguished physician, Dr. Brandycure, who 
was an invited guest, was thrown out at the Great 
Desert where he was found wounded and half- 
dead, and carried to the Fountainland water-cure, 
where he was restored to health and to his 
former high position in society. Mr. Leadrabble 
who assisted in conducting the defence of the 
Black Valley Corporation against the persecution of 
the water bigots, as he called them, went far down 
into the Black Valley Country, where he misera- 
bly perished, as is supposed in the great Black Val- 
ley Desert. One of the swift witnesses for the 
defence was fished out of the mud at Debauch 
Slough in a condition hardly to be recognized by 
his friends, and carried in a coach known as the 
" Black Maria " to Prisonton, where he found em- 
ployment in respectable business. 



After the hearing of the arguments upon both 
sides, the case was committed to the jur}^ in an 
able and impartial charge ; and, after being out 
ten minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of 
guilty, mid the loud cheering of the vast multitude 




Mr. Wriggler after his Excursion inquires the way home, and is directed to 
the Crystal River Stage Office. 




Dr. Brandycure on his way home from Idiot Flats and the Great Desert, 
is recommended to the Crystal River Water Cure, and gets a verbal 
Prescription from a lady. 




Officer Ironhand becomes a conductor and stops his train at the Prisonton 

Water Works. A Politician of the Black Valley Country at his post, 

makes a speech against " Sumtry " laws and in defence of liberty. 



Trial Ended. 139 



Trial ends. Prisoners. Black Maria coach. 

assembled to hear the trial. As soon as silence 
was restored, the court sentenced each of the pris- 
oners according to the law ; and, under the care of 
Mr. State-constable Ironhand, tliey were marched 
to the place of punishment, which the reader will 
find described farther on in this volume. 




CHAPTER X. 

e 

Great Exciteme?it along the Black Valley Railroad on 
Account of the Approaching Flood — Water men de- 
nounced — Arrival of the Flood at Medicineville — Great 
Depot and Storehouses carried away — Health of the 
Place improved. 




HE news of the flooding of Sippington, 
its annexation to Fountainland, and the 
trial and condemnation of the adventurers from 
Medicineville and Tippleton, spread rapidly 
through the Black Valley -Country, producing 
great excitement. The stockholders and depot- 
masters were infuriated. They cried out at the 
top of their voices, and threw dust into the air in 
such quantities that it seemed for a time that the 
volcano at the lower end of the road was in a state 
of eruption. 

The men who had built the great canal^ and 
opened the flood-gates upon the county, were 
140 



Medicineville Flooded. 141 

Water men denounced. Excitement at Medicineville. Storehouses fall. 

pronounced fools. Some said they were priest- 
ridden, and had but one idea, and that was water. 
Others said that W\ey had lived on water-gruel so 
long that they had lost all muscular power ; so 
that one man well nourished on the beverage of 
the Black Valley Country, and other kinds of 
"respiratory food," could chase a thousand, and 
two put ten thousand to flight. Others said these 
men were dabbling in politics, and that the water 
company at Fountainland was a political organiza- 
tion, which was aiming to take away the rights 
and destroy the business of a large class of the 
most respectable and wealthy citizens. 

At Medicineville the excitement was unbounded. 
Water from the Fountainland canal was beginning 
to flow around the foundations of the great depot, 
loosening them so that the building was evidently 
settling on the side towards the stream. Huge 
storehouses were discovered to be leaning and 
cracking. Steadily the water kept rising and flow- 
ing, in spite of all efforts to prevent it ; until at 
last the depot was afloat. Almost simultaneously, 
the great storehouses of the place tumbled and 
went down. Millions of bottles were floated out 
upon the stream, so that for many miles around 
nothing but floating bottles could be seen. 

Soon after the flood had swept away the great 
depot and the storehouses around it, the people of 
Medicineville began to discover that the health of 
the place was yreatly improved. Multitudes of 



142 Blessings of the Flood. 

Health improves. Public sentiment changes. Fields look gay. 

invalids who were in the habit of taking excur- 
sions on the Black Valley Road for their health, 
found that the free use of water from the Crystal 
River was vastly more beneficial, as well as less 
troublesome and expensive, and that after this thej r 
had no fainting turns or headaches, such as thej r 
were accustomed to have after their excursions 
from the Medicine ville depot. A very large num- 
ber completely recovered their health by the use 
of the aforesaid waters. 

In view of these facts, a public sentiment grew 
up rapidly against all attempts at rebuilding the 
depot, or repairing the road which the flood had 
so badly damaged. Tt was discovered, too, that 
the whole country around Medicineville was much 
improved by the effects of the water which had 
overflowed it. The fields were looking more beau- 
tiful than ever ; and the fruit trees were yielding 
their fruits every month, and the leaves were 
found to be for the healing of the invalids. 



Mixer Bittersell Sz Co. 

Invalid Station Housr. 

Ml 




Mr. Bittersell is disgusted with beggars and water fanatics who are bringing 
ruin to business and makes an earnest speech. His dog responds. 




A scene below Medicinville after the flood Mr Bittersell backs 
down — after his floating capital. 



CHAPTER XL 



Great Meeting at Medicineville to act on the Question of 
Annexifig the Place to Fountainland — Speeches by Mr. 
Medicinefooled, Dr. Watercure, Mrs. Trywhickey, and 
Mr. Bitter sell — Resolution for Annexation passed 
amid loud cheers for the Water Company and the 
Great Canal. 



HEN these discoveries about the good ef- 
f fects of water were made known, the 
question of following the example of 
Sippington, and annexing Medicineville to Foun- 
tainland, came up for frequent discussion. After 
a great variety of facts bearing upon this question 
had become known, a petition was circulated by 
the recovered invalids for a public meeting, to act 
on the question of annexation. A large number of 
signatures having been procured, the meeting was 
called. Mr. Medicinefooled, who, for more than 

US 




146 Annexation. 



Great meeting. Mr. Medicinefoolcd. Dr. Watercure. Statistics. 

ten 3'ears had been taking daily excursions on the 
Black Valley Road for his health, and who was 
nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, was 
chosen to preside. 

On taking the chair, he related his experience, 
and declared that he considered the late flood 
which had swept away the great depot and washed 
away the Black Valley Road at Medicineville, was 
the greatest blessing that ever visited the place ; 
that he considered the call of the meeting a wise 
movement ; and that, if it should result in annex- 
ing the place to Fountainland, every interest, finan- 
cial, moral, and sanitary, would be promoted. 

After the speech of Mr. Medicinefooled, Dr. 
Watercure, a physician of much learning and ex- 
perience, who had long studied this subject and 
for more than twenty years had advised his 
patients to take no excursions upon the Black 
Valley Road, addressed the meeting in a powerful 
speech, giving statistics from hospitals, camps, and 
almshouses, as well as from his own observation, 
sustaining the chairman. Among other facts which 
he stated, quite to the surprise of many who were 
present, was, that certain life insurance companies 
issued policies to those who never took excursions 
upon the Black Valley Road at much reduced 
rates, having ascertained, by a vast collection of 
facts, that life was much prolonged by keeping 
entirely away from the aforesaid road. 

After this, a lame number of invalids addressed 



Annexation. 147 



H"~ Women speak. Experiences. From Medicineville to the Great Desert. 

the meeting, giving their own experience and 
observation, and confirming all that has been 
said. 

In the midst of this discussion, a woman of un- 
commonly interesting appearance addressed the 
audience. It was Mrs. Try whiskey . Her face 
was pale, and her dark piercing eyes seemed full 
of indignation as she raised her shrill and tremu- 
lous voice to confirm what had been said. As soon 
as her voice was heard, the audience was hushed 
to silence as she proceeded. 

MRS. TRYWHISKEY'S SPEECH. 

" If there is any subject on which women have 
a right to speak and bear their testimony, this is 
one. I am the mother of a family, and the wife 
of one of your most respectable citizens. For ten 
years I have been bringing disgrace and distress 
upon my family by travelling upon that road 
whose mischiefs have been alluded to, most appro- 
priately called the Black Valley Road. Ten years 
ago I was professionally advised to take a daily 
excursion from Medicineville for my health. At 
first it seemed as if my health would be restored ; 
but soon I found myself far down into the Black 
Valley Country. I passed one depot after another, 
until I found myself at Deliriumton and the Great 
Desert beyond, where I was ejected from the train 
in a most w r retched condition. Bloated and be- 



148 Annexation. 



Cured by water. Woman suffrage. Ejected at Idiot Flats. 

grimed, and bruised by my fall, I was taken into 
an ambulance, and carried back to my home. I 
found my family in great affliction by reason of 
my long absence. By the frequent use of the 
Crystal River water my health Was restored. 
What Mr. Medicinefooled and Dr. Watercure have 
said is every word true. Multitudes of others 
have had an experience similar to mine, and I am 
convinced that no measures w^ould be so wise as to 
annex our place immediately to Fountainland, and 
have its wholesome laws extended over our vil- 
lage. If females are allowed to vote on this sub- 
ject, I and all present, and all who, have not been 
below Idiot Flats on the road, shall hold up our 
hands for the measure." 

As soon as Mrs. Tiywhiskey had resumed her 
seat, Mr. Bittersold arose and said : 

MR. BITTEKSOLD'S SPEECH. 

" I also have tried the Medicineville excursion 
remedy, and in consequence have been far down 
into the Black Valley Country. From Medicine- 
ville I went slowly to Tippleton, thence more 
quickty to Topersville ; from which place I was 
carried rapidly to Horrorland and the Great 
Desert beyond. At Idiot Flats I was ejected 
from the train, and when my head struck the 
ground, I came to my senses, and availed myself 
of a free ride in one of the Crystal River ambu- 



Annexation. 149 



Mr. Blttcrsell concludes. Mr. Bittersell takes the floor. Great loss. 



lances, which conveyed me to this place, where I 
intend to remain, provided the motion before the 
meeting prevails. Otherwise, it is my purpose to 
remove immediately to Fountainland, with such of 
my friends and travelling companions as I can per- 
suade to go with me." 

Miss Winecure followed in a thrilling speech, 
which is omitted for want of room. 

At this stage of the proceedings, a well-dressed 
gentleman, decorated with a heavy gold watch- 
chain, and leaning upon a gold-headed cane, ad- 
dressed the meeting. It was Mr. Bittersell, whose 
great storehouse had been swept away in the 
flood. 

MR. BITTEKSELL'S SPEECH. 

" Gentlemen," said he, " I wish to remonstrate 
against these rash proceedings. A great calamity 
has come upon our place. Millions of property 
have been destroyed, and many of our citizens 
who were rich have been made poor. Multitudes 
of people, too, are no^#out of the business by which 
they have supported their families and accumu- 
lated their property. More than ten miles of the 
road which has built up our place has been 
carried away, and twenty years of labor will not 
repair the breach which has been made. Large 
storehouses, too, have gone down the stream in 
this flood (and here he raised his gold-headed 



150 Annexation. 



Cork flies out of Mr. Bittersell's beer bottle. Spray. Miss Winecure called for. 

cane, and shook it with much indignation, pour- 
ing upon the amused audience the rest of his im- 
passioned speech, as a beer bottle its contents 
when the cork is expelled by high fermentation,) 
closing by declaring, if the motion made in this 
meeting prevails, and we vote to annex our village 
to Fountairiland, and come under its bigoted and 
illiberal laws, our liberty will be gone, and we 
shall be slaves." 

As soon as Mr. Bittersell sat down, Miss Wine- 
cure, who was known formerly as a leading singer 
in Dr. Oldwine's church before it was carried away 
by the flood at Sippington, was called on for a 
song. She promptly responded ; and, with a face 
beaming with health from the use of Crystal 
River water, and a voice so clear and strong, that 
it could be distinctly heard in every part of the 
vast audience, sang : 

THE SONG OF THE BLACK VALLEY RAILROAD; 




You have heard of the ride of John Gilpin, 
That captain so jocund and gay — 



Annexation. 151 



John Gilpin. Mazeppa. Mr. Bittersell. 

How he rode clown to Edmonton village 
In a very remarkable way. 



You have heard of the ride of Mazeppa, 
Bound fast to his wing-footed steed — 

How he coursed through the fields and the forests 
At a very remarkable speed. 

But I sing of a trip more exciting, 

In a song which I cannot restrain. 
Of a ride down the Black Valley Railroad, 

Of a ride on the Black Valley train. 

The setting-out place for the journey, 

Is Sippington Station, I think ; 
Where the engines for water take whiskey, 

And the people take — something to drink. 

From collisions you need fear no danger — 

No trains are ever run back : 
They all go one way — to perdition — 

Provided they keep on the track. 

By the time we reach Medicine Village, 
The passengers find themselves sick' — 

Have leg-ache or back-ache or head-ache, 
Or some ache that strikes to the quick. 

\Applause: Mr. Bittersell indignant.'] 

We are pious, and hold to the Scripture, 

With Paul the Apostle agree — 
To take "wine" instead of much "water," 

For our " often infirmity," 



152 Annexation. 



Scriptures. Wrecker's Curve. Express. 

In fact, we improve on the reading, 
By just a slight change in the text — 

Say "often," where the Scripture says "little," 
And leave " little " for what may come next. 



We break up at Tippleton Station, 

To try and get rid of our pain ; 
At Topersville also we tarry, 

And do the same over again. 

Our spirits indeed may be willing, 

But very weak is the flesh ; 
So oft as we stop for five minutes, 

We use all the time to refresh. 

Now we come to the great central station — 
The last stopping-place on the line — 

Wrecker's Curve, where is kept the chief storehouse 
Of rum, whiskey, brandy and wine. 

From this place on to Destruction, 

The train makes no break or delay ; 
And those who may wish to stop sooner 

Are kindly thrown out by the way 

A full supply of bad whiskey 

For our engine is taken in here ; 
And a queer looking fellow from Hades. 

Steps on for our engineer, 

From Wrecker's Curve on to Destruction, 

The train is strictly express, 
And will not be slowed or halted 

For any red flag of distress. 



Annexation. 153 



Flying Glimpses. Engineer. Destruction. 

And so when all things are ready, 
From Wrecker's Curve we set out : 

Let me give you some flying glimpses 
Of the places along on the route. 

First Rowdyville claims our attention, 

Then Quarrelton comes into view, 
Then Riotville breaks on the vision, 

And the filthy Beggartown too. 

As we rush by the village of Woeland, 

Three wretches are thrown from the train ; 

We can see them rolled over and over 

Through the darkness, the mud and the rain, 

Our engineer chuckles and dances 
In the wild, lurid flashes he throws ; 

Hotter blaze the red fires of his furnace, 
As on into blackness he goes. 

Oh, the sounds that we hear in the darkness, 
The laughter and crying and groans, 

The ravings of anger and madness, 
The sobbings and piteous moans. 

For now we have entered the regions 

Where all things horrible dwell 
Where the shadows are peopled with goblins, 

With the fiends and the furies of hell. 

In this deep and Stygian darkness, 
Lost spirits have made their abode ; 

It is plain we are near to Destruction — 
Very near to the end of the road. 



154 Annexation. 



Vote taken. Medicineville annexed to Fountainland. Great joy. 

Would you like, my young friends, to take passage 

To this region of horror and pain ? 
Here stretches the Black Valley Railroad, 

And here stands the Black Valley train,* 

At the conclusion of this song, the vote was 
taken, and the resolution for annexation was unan- 
imously passed, and three cheers given for Miss 
Winecure and Mrs. Trywhiskey, and three times 
three for the Water Company and the Great Canal 
which had brought the flood upon their once sickly 
and miserable place. 

* By I. N. Tarbox, D.D. 




Mrs. Trywhisky meditates upon Matt. x. 18 , and Rev. xx. 3, and 

sees in a dream the three " leading spirits " of the Black 

Valley Country going down and put together, and makes 

A Picture for Study. 




CHAPTER XII. 

Great Change in the Condition of the Black Valley 
Country — Fountainland Stage Company disbanded — 
Great Viole7ice of the Flood — Many flee out of the 
Black Valley — Old Stagemen turn Boatmen — Great 
Wash-out in the Broad Road — Prince of the Black 
Valley Country calls a Council of his Legions — Great 
Accumulation of Bridges, Depots, Broken Cars — 
Skeletons, etc. 

HE condition of the whole Black Valley 
Country was entirely changed by the flood- 
^ir & ing of Sippington and Medicineville. At 
Rowdyville and Quarrelton, all was quiet. At 
Riotville, mobs had entirely ceased. At Beggars- 
town, there were no arrivals, as no trains now 
came to that place. At Gam biers ville, Fighting- 
ton, and Brothelton, business was dull. At Prison- 
ton there were no arrivals. From Deliriumton 
iS7 




158 Damages by the Flood. 

News spreads. Great excitement. Flight from the valley. 

and Demonland, the evil spirits fled away dis- 
gusted with the quiet which everywhere pre- 
vailed. 

In all those places the people had heard of the 
great flood at Sippington, and of the destruction 
of the Black Valley Road, and were quite pre- 
pared to welcome the flood to their own places. 
At Wrecker's Curve the news of the flooding and 
destruction of Sippington and Medicine ville almost 
created a panic, so great was the joy at that place. 
At the great depot, where so lately long rows of 
stages were always in waiting to convey back to 
Fountainland those who could be persuaded to 
leave the trains, all was now quiet. As no trains 
arrived, and there was no more use for the stages, 
the stage company was disbanded, to the great 
joy of those who had expended so much time and 
money in maintaining it. 

The location of all these places was such that 
the flood naturally came upon them with great 
force and power. The Black Valley Road had 
been constructed in the lowest part of the country, 
and all the places built upon it were low down in 
the valley, so that, as the flood came on, it swept 
into and through them all with great violence. 
Many of the people, when they heard of the ap- 
proach of the water, fled out of the valley into the 
more elevated localities. 

In this way a vast multitude was collected to 
witness the effect of the flood. As they looked 



Great Power of the Flood. 159 

Nothing valuable injured. Fountainland stage men. Disturbance in the air. 

down into the valley, and listened to the roaring 
of the waters, their attention was directed to the 
fact that nothing which was really valuable was 
injured. The only damage which the flood did 
was to the Black Valley Railroad, and what was 
connected with it. All who chose to do so could 
easily get away from clanger. Even those who 
were afloat could procure help by calling for it by 
some signal of distress. The old Fountainland 
stage men were there with boats and ropes to help 
all to a place of safety who were willing to get 
out of the doomed Black Valley, into which they 
had come from the great upper terminus of the 
Black Valley Road. 

While this great flood was so effectually carry- 
ing away the Black Valley Road, it was found that 
it was also making great havoc of the old highivay 
which ran through the valley, commonly called 
the " Broad Road," and which ran nearly parallel 
with the aforesaid railroad. The huge chasms 
which the flood had made in the old Broad Road, 
it was discovered were greatly interrupting the 
travel on that thoroughfare. It was also discov- 
ered that where these wash-outs occurred there 
were very unusual disturbances in the air in all 
the immediate neighborhood, while directly over 
the wash-outs there was the appearance of clouds ; 
and sometimes the muttering of thunder accom- 
panied with flashes of lightning Avas distinctly 
heard. 



1G0 Great Damage to the Broad Road. 

Prince of the Black Valley. Councils. Desert blossoms. 

This unusual condition of the atmosphere ar- 
rested much attention. Various opinions were 
advanced as to the causes of these phenomena. 
The most common opinion was, that the Prince of 
the Black Valley Country was holding a council 
of his legions, to devise methods of repairing the 
damages which the great flood had done to the 
" Broad Road " over which, in connection with the 
great Railroad, all his subjects passed on their way 
to the bonfire, which was at the lower terminus of 
both these roads. 

This theory was much strengthened by the fact 
that after the flood had swept away the railroad, 
and done much damage to the old " Broad Road," 
the country became very beautiful under the labors 
of the multitudes of men and women who had for- 
merly spent most of their time and money in 
travel upon the above-mentioned thoroughfares; 
and in all the great Black Valley Country the 
people were contented and happy ; and even " the 
Great Desert" "blossomed like the rose," under 
the influence of the waters of the Crystal River 
which the flood had poured over it. 

One of the effects of the flood which arrested 
much attention was the great accumulation of 
the debris at the lower portion of the valley, 
through which the flood had made its way. It 
was estimated that many hundred acres were 
covered thickly over with demolished cars and 
depots, which had come down upon the flood. 



Results of the Flood. 161 

Stockholders. Politicians. Skeletons. \ 

Many skeletons of depot-masters and stockholders 
on the road were found buried among the great 
mass of rubbish. They were the skeletons of the 
men who had attempted to resist the flood. Among 
the skeletons were recognized the bones of many 
who had attempted to ride into (official) high 
places upon the Black Valley Railroad. 

The places on the great field of accumulated 
fragments where these skeletons were deposited 
were easily discovered, as flocks of unclean birds 
were always hovering over them, and filling the air 
with doleful music. The wind, too, brought along 
its report of them, by the sickening smells which 
sometimes filled the air, to the great disgust of the 
whole surrounding country. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

Great Joy in the Black Valley Country on Account of 
the Flood — Old Fount ainlami Stage-company Reor- 
ganized to Carry Outcasts to the Water — Orna- 
mented Stages and Huge 07nnibuses — Women. 




HE arrival of the flood at the Great Desert 
^2*3- was hailed with the greatest enthusiasm. 
The depot, which the flooding of Sippington had 
rendered quite useless, was swept clean away hy 
the swollen stream which poured along the track 
of the road. As soon as the flood made its appear- 
ance, the quality and abundance of water arrested 
attention. All who drank of it were immediately 
refreshed and invigorated. The inhabitants of the 
desert soon discovered the virtues of the water, 
and hastened to make known its blessings to 
others. Vagabonds and outcasts from the Black 
Valley Railroad, and wanderers over this desolate 
land, began to gather at the stream and to quench 
162 



Glad Tidings Spread. 1G3 

Multitudes fleck to the water. Fountainland stages. 

their raging thirst. Rumors of the wonderful 
water spread rapidly over the length and breadth 
of the desert, and multitudes flocked thither to 
try its virtues for themselves. 

All who drank were satisfied, and eager to tell 
to others its wonderful power. Gladly the good 
news was communicated, and rapidly spread 
through the whole region. 

As the Fountainland stages were not now 
needed on the old routes where they had formerly 
been employed (the flood which had carried away 
the road and the depots upon it, and stopped all 
travel, having rendered them useless), a large num- 
ber of them came to the Great Desert to assist in 
transporting the helpless and the dying to the heal- 
ing waters, the news of which had created a strong 
desire in the minds of many to remove away from 
the land of desolation and drought in which they 
had so long been dragging out their miserable 
existence. 

The arrival of these stages produced a profound 
sensation. Multitudes were waiting to be carried 
to the water, and eagerly embraced the first oppor- 
tunity to make their way thither. 

The lame and the halt, who had received injury 
when thrown from the trains on which they had 
come down to this desolate land — the sick and 
the dying, and the helpless of every class — were 
taken up in great numbers, and carried to the 
water. 



164 Ho ! for the Crystal River. 

Organizations. Churches. Women. 

These stages were of every variety of structure, 
but all working for the same object. Some of 
them were covered with elegant trappings and 
ornaments. Each had its own mark and method 
of work. Some of the large omnibuses which did 
most efficient execution were plain and unorna- 
mented. Over all these a large white flag floated 
conspicuously, upon which was printed in red let- 
ters, " Ho every one that thirsteth : come ye to the 
waters" 

Among the most conspicuous of the omnibuses 
were those which were managed by women, of whom 
there are said to be a hundred and forty-four thou- 
sand, mostly " clothed in white." These carriages 
are commonly drawn by white horses clothed in 
" fine linen white and clean." It is believed by some 
that those horses belong to the famous white horse 
cavalry at the head of which rides one who is 
called " Faithful and True," and on whose "head 
are many crowns, and out of whose mouth goeth 
a sharp sword." 

The omnibuses were frequently cheered by the 
gazers who were drawn together by their peculiar 
appearance, and methods of picking up passengers. 
Stockholders, conductors and ticket masters of the 
Black Valley Railroad declare that these women- 
drivers are a nuisance — that they block up the 
streets and hinder business, and that it is quite im- 
proper to drh r e such chariots into such muddy 
places. Sometimes mud is thrown at the horses 



Mtnnjimwvmmvm^^^n^ituii 




A company of travellers upon the Black Valley Railroad, listen to an 

account of the Crystal River Country, and are almost persuaded 

to emigrate. 




Agents of the White Horse Omnibus Co., hold a meeting in an elevated 

Black Valley Railroad Station House, and c'ose with singing, 

"Open thou the Crystal Fountain." 



Great Rejoicing. 169 

Outcasts seek the healing waters. 

and drivers, and attempts are made to frighten 
them,and it is regarded as a remarkable fact that no 
dresses have ever been soiled, or teams seen run- 
ning away. 

These omnibuses were constantly loaded with 
the outcasts of the country, making their way to 
the region of the healing waters whose virtues 
the skilful drivers were constantly extolling with 
voices which could be heard far away upon the 
desert. At times the whole company would make 
the desert resound by singing : 

" There is a stream whose gentle flow 
Supplies the city of our God, 
Life, love and joy still gliding through, 
And watering our divine abode. 

Flow to restore, but not destroy, 
As when the cloudless lamp of day 

Pours out its floods of light and joy, 
And sweeps each lingering mist away." 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Wonderful Changes Produced by the Waters of the Crys- 
tal River — Old Things Pass Away and all Things 
Become New. 




NE of the most noticeable effects of the 
Crystal River water upon the Great Des- 
ert was in disclosing the fertility of the land. 
Up to the time of the introduction of the water, 
it was commonly supposed that the soil was quite 
worthless, but wherever the irrigation was perfect, 
it was found that the land became fruitful. 
As soon as this discovery was made, water from 
the great stream was drawn off in numerous rivu- 
lets, and made to flow through the desert. Wher- 
ever it came, the desert began to blossom. Vast 
fields of grain waved where formerly not a shrub 
would grow. The vagabonds of the desert became 
the tillers of a fruitful soil. Wealth increased 
with great rapidity. Townships were laid 
out and roads constructed. School-houses and 



170 



Great Changes. 171 



Desert blossoms. Schools and churches. 

churches were erected, and the population rose 
rapidly to a high state of civilization. 

Under this new condition of things the clouds 
of dust which formerly filled the atmosphere disap- 
peared, and the air became clear and invigorating. 
The suffocating heat, which had rendered breath- 
ing at times difficult, gave place to a healthy tem- 
perature ; and the whirlwinds which formerly 
swept across the country, carrying desolation in 
their tract, ceased altogether, as soon as the country 
was irrigated with the water. 

Not only at the Great Desert, but in all the 
Black Valley Country and places contiguous, great 
changes had taken place. At what was Sippington 
the old custom of emigrating had entirely ceased, 
and nearly all the people were remaining in the place 
of their nativity. Every house was supplied with 
water from the Crystal River, and the whole region 
was irrigated. The name of the place was entirely 
dropped, because as is said in the time of the con- 
struction of the Great Canal the people were com- 
monly called Simpletons. The old depot had 
quite disappeared and at what was supposed to be 
near the main entrance an " Old Oaken Bucket 
hung by a well " of the purest Crystal water. 

Medicineville had entirely disappeared. Below 
its old site for many miles the ground was cov- 
ered to the depth of several feet, with bottles of 
all sizes and shapes, some whole and some broken 
— some full and some empty. Over this great 



172 Effects of the Flood. 

Field of bottles. Wailing sounds. Haunted ground. 

mass of debris left by the flood sickly vines of the 
ivy were growing, as if attempting to cover up the 
barrenness and -unsightliness of the ground. At 
times, when the wind was blowing, wailing sounds 
were heard coming from this region. Some said it 
was the wailing of departed spirits whose bodies 
had been destroyed by these bottles; others said 
that the wind blowing into the mouths of these 
empty bottles produced this dismal wailing, which 
night and the imagination had made so hideous 
that the whole region was regarded as haunted 
ground. 

Tippleton and Topersville had become flourishing 
places of business. The old distilleries and brew- 
eries were converted into factories in which the 
people were finding constant and profitable em- 
ployment. Wrecker s Curve had become a great 
centre of trade known as the Exchange. At Bab- 
bleton the people could all talk plainly. At Stag- 
gerland they could easily plant their feet in the 
right place when they walked. Wallowditch was 
known as the "pool in the wilderness" and was 
sometimes called Bethesda,on account of the won- 
derful healing which came to all who bathed in its 
waters now purified by the inflowing of the Crys- 
tal River. 

At Robberston all the elegant houses were gone ; 
and only a few obscure people hid in dens and 
caves could be found. From G-ambersville and 
Vampireland the people had nearly all removed to 



All Things New. * 173 

Camp-meeting. Intoxication. Wolf and lamb. 

other places. The location of Beggarstown was a 
question of dispute, an extensive burying-ground 
without headstones, being the only evidence of its 
existence. 

Woeland was changed to Joyland. 

At Wailingvale a great protracted camp-meeting 
was open, and the people were shouting and sing- 
ing so loud that they could be heard quite to the 
Great Desert, and the Old Settlers in the Black 
Valley Country declared that they were intoxica- 
ted by the Crystal River Water. 

Tear River was dwindled to a little rill ; Rowdy- 
land, Foolsport, and Quarrelton had all changed 
their names. 

At Fightington the people seem to have been 
completely made over. A sketch of their history 
in their " Morning Peace News " says of them : 
" Once they were so full of valor that they smote 
the air for breathing in their faces, and beat the 
ground for kissing of their feet ; " " but no w a wolf 
is often seen dwelling with a lamb, and a leopard 
lying down with a kid and a calf, and a young lion 
and a fatling together, and a little child leading 
them," so great has been the effect of the Crystal 
River Water. The editor proposes to change the 
name of the place to Waterlieu, on account of its 
historical associations. 

Debauch Slough was changed to a lake of pure 
water, the turbid water having been entirely dis- 
placed by the inflowing of the Crystal River. Its 



174 Great Changes. 



Maelstrom gone. Crystal Sea. Hospitals 

surface was smooth like a sea of glass, and the 
water so clear that the bottom could be seen in the 
deepest places. The maelstrom formerly so danger- 
ous had entirely disappeared. To make it more 
beautiful and attracting the constructors of the 
Great Canal had planted along the shores and far up 
upon the slopes, the Rose of Sharon and the Lily 
of the Valley, with trees which bare twelve man- 
ner of fruits, and whose leaves do not wither. 
When the moon is shining upon this Crystal Sea, 
lying like a "molten looking-glass " in the midst 
of what seems a fairy-land and out upon the waters 
they sing : 

" When marshalled on the nightly plain 
The glittering host bestud the sky." 

or 

" Hark, hark to God, the chorus breaks 
From every host irom every gem." 

the effect is such that those who participate in it, 
think they can see the great illuminated house of 
many mansions far away upon the shining shore, 
and hear the "harpers harping upon their harps," 
and see " that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
scending out of heaven from God." 

At Hornetsnest all the fine houses and country- 
seats had been given up for hospitals, known in all 
the region as the Zaccheus Hospitals, where the 
lame and the halt and wounded outcasts, which 
had been picked up along the track of the Black 



All Things New. 175 

Dreams. Singing birds. Death River. 

Valley Road were nursed, while the former occu- 
pants were living in modest cottages where their 
sleep was undisturbed by nightmares and frightful 
dreams so common before the Crystal River had 
produced its marvellous changes in the condition 
of the place. 

At Prisonton a great Industrial Institute was 
established where daily lessons were given in moral 
hydraulics, as set forth in the next chapter. 

At Idiot Flats the lack-lustre eyes and counte- 
nances of the people were so changed as hardly to 
be recognized by their friends. 

At Screechowlton where formerly the dismal 
voices of " the gloomy bird of night " were con- 
stantly heard, the sweet singing birds had come, 
and the orioles with golden plumes, and the white- 
winged doves were flying among the trees which 
had been planted and were growing luxuriantly by 
the Crystal River waters. 

The most remarkable effect of the great flood of 
the Crystal River was upon the great river of the 
Black Valley Country. Death River, it was found, 
rose and fell just in proportion to the demand for its 
waters. When the people began to drink the waters 
of the Crystal River they found that their thirst 
for the mixed waters of the other river was gone. 
In connection with this change in the appetites of 
the people there was a great fall in the old favorite 
river. 

When the sun came upon it in this reduced and 



176 All Tilings New. 

Light and heat. Skeletons of Devil Fish. 

shallow condition, the water was rapidly taken up 
by evaporation and carried in clouds to the Foun- 
tainland Country, where it was converted into 
cascades and brought back in a pure state in 
the Crystal River, thus helping to swell the great 
flood which was changing the face of the whole 
country. In this way — by light and heat — the 
great Death River was reduced to an insignificant 
stream which a few of the old inhabitants of the 
country were bottling up for exportation to hea- 
then lands, and for the extermination of vermin. 
All along the bed of the old river, companies of 
men from the Grreat Desert were digging up fer- 
tilizers for their farms and gardens, and it was 
confidently predicted that the geologists of the 
future ages would find this whole region rich in 
the petrified skeletons of the devil fish which 
would be dug up and sent to the various colleges 
and universities which were now beginning to 
spring up wherever the waters of the Crystal River 
were irrigating the country. 




^& ; 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Confiscated Property of the Black Valley Railroad 
Corporation used for the Construction of a Prison and 
Reformatory School, in which Particular Attention is 
directed to the Power and Usefulness of Water. 



fmfijL FTER the flooding of the Black Valley 
>4^% Country, its annexation to Fountainland, 
and the general improvement and renova- 
tion of the whole region, an important question 
arose in relation to the disposition of the confis- 
cated property of the Black Valley Railroad 
Corporation, now in the hands of the government. 
Its value in the market was found to be only one 
per cent of the value, as estimated by the stock- 
holders, when the road was in working order. After 
much deliberation, it was determined to sell the 
property, and use the avails for the erection of a 
suitable institution for the criminals, now number- 
ing several thousand, under sentence for violating 
the laws relating to the Black Valley road. 
177 



178 Water Works. 



Railroad property worthless. Power of water. Aqueduct 

When the property was sold, it was ascertained 
that the avails were insufficient for the erection of 
the proposed prison ; but, as the wealth of the 
country was rapidly increasing under the new con- 
dition of things produced by water, it was found 
easy to raise the money by voluntary subscription. 

In view of the prospective decrease of the crimi- 
nals to be provided for, it was determined to con- 
struct the prison so that it would answer the 
double purpose of a Prison and an Educational and 
Industrial Institution. It was also determined to 
construct it in such a manner that the inmates 
would be constantly reminded of the 

Power and Great Value of Water. 

Prisonton was chosen for the location of the in- 
stitution. Around a large enclosure an embankment 
was constructed out of such material of the Black 
Valley Railroad as could be gathered after the 
flood. It consisted of wheels and trucks, and bro- 
ken iron, and fragments of all sorts, which the flood 
had driven together in one vast pile. The fumi- 
gating instruments found among the debris of the 
flood, after being crushed under hydraulic pressure, 
were used for cement. Upon this embankment, a 
large aqueduct constructed out of the boilers of 
the engines of the aforesaid railroad, was firmly 
laid, extending also quite around the enclosure. 

Into this aqueduct, hollow shafts made like the 










i^MMm 




Architects testing the great Aqueduct and the pressure of the Crystal Sea, 



Prisonton Water Works. 181 

Water-spouts. Elevator. Pressure. Inverted decanter. 

smoke-stacks of the engines of the road, were in- 
serted at suitable distances, so as to answer the 
double purpose of posts and water-spouts. Between 
these posts a palisade fence, made out of the rails 
of the same road, was constructed. To this aque- 
duct upon the embankment another and much 
larger one was connected, extending to the great 
Crystal Sea of Fountainland. 

The high elevation of this sea above the valley 
where the institution was located, it was estimated, 
would force the water several hundred feet into the 
air, and also furnish sufficient water-power for driv- 
ing all the machinery of the workshops. To make 
the whole more effective in showing the beauty and 
value of water, and the power of the Fountainland 
pressure, a hollow shaft, made of the same mate- 
rials as that of the aqueduct, extending perpendic- 
ularly over a hundred feet, was erected in the 
centre of the enclosure. The top of this shaft was 
in the form of an inverted decanter, and connected 
at the bottom with the great aqueduct from the 
Crystal Sea in Fountainland, already described. 

When this structure was completed, and the 
water let in, its appearance was exceedingly beau- 
tiful. Every pillar of the fence became a water- 
spout ; and, being slightly flattened at the top, each 
jet of water assumed the shape of a fan, the whole 
together having the appearance of a wall of water, 
beautifully scalloped at the top. As the water fell 
in spray and foam, it had the appearance of a wall 



182 Water Works. 



Wall of Rainbows. Stockholders. Rains. 

of cascades and waterfalls extending as far as the 
eye could reach. When the sun was shining, the 
spray would form rainbows, so that by a little help 
from the imagination the whole enclosure would 
become a wall of rainbows. 

The spouts of water from the shaft-like smoke- 
pipes, which looked like huge bottles, and from 
the inverted decanter upon the top of the great 
central shaft, it was noticed, arrested much atten- 
tion, especially from the old stockholders in the 
Black Valley Road. Sometimes they were seen to 
shiver as with a sudden attack of ague while look- 
ing at these objects. When the rains were falling 
at Fountainland, and the springs were full, and the 
cascades were "blowing their trumpets from a 
thousand steeps," and the great Crystal River was 
pouring along its overflowing banks, the action of 
the water was sensibly increased, so that the roar 
of it could be heard for many miles. By putting 
the ear to the ground when all was quiet and still 
(as upon a New England sabbath of the olden 
times), the sound of the water could be heard 
throughout the whole Black Valley Country from 
Sippington to the volcano, except by those " who 
having eyes see not, and having ears hear not." 
Those who could see well at a distance always 
noticed a diminution of the flames at the end of 
the road, when the water was flowing abundantly. 

Upon both sides of this water-wall, a broad canal 
extended quite around the prison, so that any who 



Prisonton Water Works.. 183 

Creat enclosure. Buildings. No steam allowed. 

attempted to escape would have to swim across a 
broad expanse of water. Upon the arch over the 
huge iron gate of the prison was inscribed — 



"BLACK VALLEY WATER WOBKS. 

" Who enters here will not depart until he has 
learned the value and power of water." 

Inside the enclosure, at a convenient distance 
from the canal, a building extending around the 
whole was constructed, in the form of the freight- 
houses of the Black Valley Kailroad, the material 
having been gathered from the demolished store- 
houses which the flood had piled up along the 
road. This building was designed as a workshop 
and industrial school for the inmates. It was 
abundantly supplied with water for drinking and 
bathing, and also for propelling the machinery of 
the establishment, steam being regarded as danger- 
ous to the class of persons employed in the 
institution. 

Inside this row of work-shops were located the 
lodging-houses of the prisoners. These were built 
like the station-houses of the Black Valley Rail- 
road, and principally from the debris of the build- 
ings which the flood had carried quite into this 
country. 

Inside of this row of buildings, the land was 
laid out into squares and small lots, around each 
of which a stream of water was kept constantly 



184 Prisonton Water Works. 

Inmates' musical talents Song. 

flowing being supplied by a well of water springing 
up in the centre of each lot. 

The number of inmates which were provided for 
in the institution, was one hundred thousand; 
being one-fifth of the number engaged in the busi- 
ness of the Black Valley Railroad Company. 

As it was found that a large number of them 
could sing and play upon musical instruments, an 
orchestra was formed for the purpose of bringing 
the influence of music to the aid of the educational 
influences of the institution. After the orchestra 
was organized and drilled for the purpose, they 
were accustomed to sing with instrumental accom- 
paniment from a platform in an open area, located 
in plain sight of the great inverted decanter ; and 
evening, just as the sun was setting, was commonly 
chosen as the time for the musical performance. 

The following was the favorite song which the 
great orchestra and choir would render with the 
most thrilling effect : 



SONG. 

"In Eden's green retreats, 

A water-brook that played 
Between soft mossy seats, 

Beneath a plane-tree's shade. 
Whose rustling leaves 
Danced o'er its brink, 
Was Adam's drink, 
And also Eve's, 



Grand Chorus. 185 



Eve's looking glass. Moses. Eden. 

Beside the parent spring 

Of that young brook, the pair 
Their morning chant would sing ; 

And Eve, to dress her hair, 

Kneel on the grass 

That fringed its side, 

And make its tide 

Her looking-glass. 

And when the man of God 

From Egypt led his flock, 
They thirsted ; and his rod 

Smote the Arabian rock, 

And forth a rill 

Of water gushed, 

And on they rushed, 

And drank their fill. 

Would Eden thus have smiled, 

Had wine to Eden come ? 
Would Horeb's parching wild 

Have been refreshed with rum ? 

And had Eve's hair 

Been dressed in gin, 
Would she have been reflected fair ? 

Had Moses built a still, 

And dealt out to that host, 
To every man his gill, 

And pleged him in a toast, 

Would cooler brains 

Or stronger hands 

Have braved the sands 

Of those hot plains ? 



186 Grand Chorus. 



Sweet fields. Shower of rum. 

" Sweet fields beyond death's flood 
Stand dressed in living green ; " 
For from the throne of God, 
To freshen all the scene, 
A river rolls, 
Where all who will 
May come and fill 
Their crystal bowls ! 

Should God, in wrath, ordain 

A universal dearth, 
What need he do but rain 

On all this green glad earth, 

From cloudy urns, 

The curse that fills 

Our vats and stills, 

That blights and burns ? 

Save us from such a shower, 

God of the eastern bow ! 
That pledge of love and power, 

What bends, what paints it so ? — 

That bow on air, 

'Tis light that bends, 

Heaven's light, that blends 

With water there. 

Let light on water shine — 

The light of love and truth ! 
Then shall that drink divine 

Be quaffed by Age and Youth ; 

And as that bow 

Doth heavenward tend 

The way they go."* 

* John Pierpont. 



JPrisonton Water Works. 187 

Evening song. Anvil Chorus. Prayer. 

This song produced the wildest enthusiasm. 
When it was sung at evening, while the rays of 
the setting sun were falling upon the spray of the 
water projectiles which surrounded the whole area 
of the institution, filling the air with floating forms 
of beauty, the effect was quite indescribable. By 
moonlight, when everything was still except the 
sound of the water, it was even more impressive. 

When this song was sung in the daytime, the 
roar and clatter of the machinery seemed to form 
a kind of sub-bass, and the trip-hammers answered 
well for an anvil chorus ; and the whole together 
was as the sound of many waters, when the ocean 
stirred by strong winds, is sounding its " deep, pro- 
found eternal bass in Nature's great anthem." 

At times, the whole vast company of the inmates 
of the institution seemed inclined to unite their 
voices in a song. At such times, the song seemed 
to fall into the form of a prayer, which was long 
remembered and often repeated after the inmates 
left the institution. The following is one of the 
sonsrs which was fixed in the memorv, and which 
proved a talisman to many in the hour of tempta- 
tation, long after leaving the place — 

" Ye gracious clouds ! ye deep, cold wells ! 
Ye gems, from mossy rocks that drip ! 
Springs, that from earth's mysterious cells 
Gush o'er your granite basin's lip ! 
To you we look : your largess give, 
And we will drink of you, and live. 



188 Water Works. 



Three classes. Females. Ticket-masters. 

The prisoners were divided into three classes 
Those who were only travellers on the Black Val- 
ley Road, and whose crimes had been committed 
under the influence of this travel, belonged to the 
first class. 

These, on being introduced into the institution 
were put to labor on the part of land which had 
been laid out for the purpose, and on which they 
were to labor ten hours daily, living on bread and 
water. 

Those from Medicineville, of whom many were 
females, were set to trimming the hedges, and keep- 
ing in order the flower-beds which, surround the 
land-plats already described. Ten hours a day, 
with bread and water, and a constant sight of the 
great inverted decanter, from which a flood of 
water was constantly leaping into the air, imparted 
great vigor and cheerfulness to their employments. 

In the second class were the ticket sellers and 
depot masters upon the Black Valley Railroad. 
These were put to hard labor in the shops, ten 
hours a day, with bread and water. This regimen, 
with the sight and sound of the rushing water all 
around them, and the roar and clatter of the ma- 
chinery which the water was driving through the 
whole extent of the vast building, seemed to im- 
part to them a vigor and elasticity such as they 
had never experienced. 

In the third class were the stockholders of the 
Black Valley Railroad. They were, for the most 



Water Works. 189 



Corpulent men. Waiters. Triumphant victory. 

part, men of great corpulency, which was ac- 
counted for by the well-known fact that they were 
accustomed to swallow travellers on the Black Val- 
ley Road whenever there was opportunity. On 
this account, sailors called them land-sharks, and all 
sailors from the Crystal River Country gave them 
a wide berth. Of some of them it was reported 
that they had not only swallowed travellers, but 
whole farms, with houses and stock. 

These corpulent gentlemen were now formed 
into companies to act as waiters to carry water to 
the prisoners. To reduce their corpulency, and to 
impart a more impressive idea of the power of 
water, it was contrived to give them a ride daily 
upon the trip-hammers. It was arranged that this 
should take place at eleven and four o'clock each 
day, that being the hour of the olden time when 
all the depots of the Black Valley Railroad were 
open for the sale of tickets. Sometimes a hundred 
at a time were placed upon as many of these water- 
horses, and required to ride until they would 
promise to deal no more in the stocks of the Black 
Valley Railroad. 

The effect of these rides upon these corpulent 
prisoners was very salutary. Their corpulency 
was rapidly reduced, and their general appearance 
was much improved. The defiant bearing which 
they formerly showed toward the members of the 
water-company who had been instrumental in con- 
structing the great aqueduct which had flooded 



190 Water Works. 



Submissive demeanor. Graduates. 

the Black Valley Country was changed to a sub- 
missive demeanor. Their ideas, too, of the value 
and power of water, were completely revolution- 
ized. The laws of Fountainland, as well as its in- 
stitutions and customs, they thought were admir- 
able ; and they were filled with wonder that the 
plan for renovating the Black Valley Country, and 
destroying the great Railroad which had built it up, 
had not been thought of long before. 

When it became sufficiently evident that the 
inmates of the institution had become thoroughly 
convinced of the value and resistless power of 
water, they were discharged, upon promising that 
they would never engage in any department of the 
business of the Black Valley Railroad. A large 
proportion of the discharged convicts became use- 
ful members of society, and admirers of the zeal 
and enterprise of the great water company, through 
whose instrumentality the country had been 
changed from a land of poverty and misery into 
a land of plenty and high cultivation. 



CHAPTER XVI. 




Special Commission to investigate the Origin of the Water 
which had swept away the Black Valley Railroad — 
Their Report — Reading from an Ancient Book — 
Concluding Hymn. 

FTER numerous observations concerning 
the quality and effects of the waters which 
had wrought such wonderful changes in 
the condition of the Black Valley Country, it was 
determined to make a thorough investigation of 
their origin. One of the most remarkable facts 
about these water which created much surprise, 
was their great abundance. The suppty seemed to 
be inexhaustible. It came flowing on in such 
quantities, that all the lands were irrigated ; and 
even the Great Desert, which had drank up all 
other streams, was quite overflowed; and the 
" dry ground was turned into watersprings." 
Another fact about the water was its great fer- 
191 



192 Water Commission. 

Country productive. Fluid-devil. No Devil Fish. 

tilizing power. Wherever it flowed, the country- 
became greatty productive, and even " the desert 
blossomed like the rose." " Trees planted by this 
river always brought forth their fruit in season : 
their leaf, also, did not wither." Upon the banks 
of it, "the hungry were made to dwell, and to 
prepare cities for habitation, and to sow fields, and 
plant vineyards, which yielded fruits of increase," 
in the greatest abundance ; and "good wine which 
maketh glad the heart," without poisoning the 
brain, being the pure " fruit of the vine," into 
which the fluid-devil of alcohol, that unclean spirit, 
which teareth men, and causeth them to fall on 
the ground, and wallow foaming, was not permit- 
ted to enter by the process of fermentation. 

Another fact about these waters which arrested 
much attention, was, that, while they abounded in 
fish, no reptiles of a destructive nature could live in 
them. Neither sharks, serpents, bloodsuckers, or 
devil fish were ever found in them ; and if 
placed there, would immediately die. Only fish 
of the useful kind could live in these waters ; and 
these were found in great abundance, "as the fish 
of the great sea exceeding many," so that the fish- 
ermen who came with their nets were abundantly 
rewarded for their labors. 

It had also been discovered that these waters 
had a remarkable medicinal quality, and power of 
imparting health and strength to body and mind. 
Many persons who were accustomed to the use of 




A sailor from the Crystal River Country who thinks "prudence 

the better part of valor," and gives Land Sharks and 

Devil Fish a wide berth. 




A young man of the olden time Water Company, drinks of the Crys- 
tal River, prays as aforetime and lays down to sleep "with a 
young lion for a pillow. 



Water Commission. 195 

Sampson. Temple pulled down. David. 

them in good faith attained an amount of physical 
strength which was sometimes marvellous. It was 
related of one of them, that when a young lion 
roared upon him, he seized the lion and tore him 
to pieces, rending him as he would a kid. At 
another time, he slew a thousand men, and re- 
covered from his exhaustion in this effort by the 
use of this invigorating water. 

At another time, when a company of men were 
lying in wait for him at a certain city, intending to 
kill him, he arose at midnight, and took the doors 
of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and 
went away with them upon his shoulders, . without 
staggering as men sometimes do with only a 
" brick in their hat." Upon another occasion, he 
seized the two middle pillars of a great temple, 
where thousands were assembled to make sport of 
him, and dragged the temple down, overwhelming 
them In ruin, to the amazement of all beholders. 

Of another water-drinker, it was related that he 
grew fair and beautiful and strong, and that when 
he was cast into a den of lions, he came out unin- 
jured ; and when his companions were cast into a 
fiery furnace, seven times heated, they came out 
without the smell of fire upon him, while the 
flames consumed those that cast them into the 
furnace. 

It was also related, that a great company of 
men, women, and children, once made a journey of 
forty years through a vast wilderness, drinking 



196 'Water Commission. 

Scientific investigation. Report. Source of the Crystal River. 

only water ; and also that upon the land and 
upon the sea this water was working wonders. 

In view of all these remarkable facts, an explor- 
ing company, made up of a party of scientific 
gentlemen, was sent to Fountainland, to make a 
thorough investigation of the the source of the 
Crystal River. This company immediately ad- 
addressed themselves to the work ; and, after many 
observations and careful inquiries, reported that 
the fountainhead of this river was from the Tem- 
ples of Fountainland. From all the Temples which 
faced the rising sun, and in which the priest stood 
" at the right side of the altar" " the waters came 
down from under the right side of the house ; " so 
that at each of these temples there was a living 
spring, forming a rivulet which irrigated and en- 
riched the surrounding region. 

It was also discovered, that, from the temples 
which faced the setting sun, no water issued^from 
under the threshold. No springs could be 
found in the vicinity of this class of temples ; and 
the ground was always dry and dusty, so that the 
whole neighborhood was parched and desolate, 
barren and comfortless, while around all the other 
class of temples the country was rich and well 
watered ; and < ; sweet fields arrayed in living green " 
greeted the eye of the traveller upon every side. 

It was found also that many of the worshippers 
in the temples which faced the setting sun made 
occasional pilgrimages into the Black Valley 



Water Commission. 197 

Temples facing the sun denounced. Reading from the Book. 

Country ; some being stockholders in the great 
Black Valley Road, and having intimate relations 
with the Prince of the Country. 

It was also discovered that the principal service 
in which many of the priests of these temples en- 
gaged, consisted in denouncing the infidelity and 
fanaticism of those who worshipped in the temples 
which faced the rising sun ; and also that some of 
them made frequent pilgrimages into the Black 
Valley Country, going, as they said, in pursuit of 
their flocks, many of whom had travelled far down 
into those regions of drought and darkness. 

While the exploring company were making 
their report concerning the origin of these remarka- 
ble waters, a man of grave countenance, clad in 
the costume of an ancient seer, arose in the great 
assembly which was convened to hear the result of 
this investigation, and asked the privilege of read- 
ing from a very ancient volume, which he indi- 
cated would probably throw new light upon this 
interesting subject, and furnish much valuable 
information. Permission being granted, he read 
as follows, while the great company listened with 
profound attention: 

" Afterward he brought me again unto the door 
of the house ; and behold, waters issued out from 
under the threshold of the house eastward : for 
the fore front of the house stood toward the east, 
and the waters came down from under the 



198 River from the Temples. 

Waters increase. Trees upon the banks. 

right side of the house, at the south side of the 
altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the 
gate northward, and led me about the way with- 
out unto the outer gate by the way that looketh 
eastward ; and, behold there ran out waters on the 
right side. And when the man that had the line 
in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a 
thousand cubits, and he brought me through the 
waters ; the waters were to the ankles. Again he 
measured a thousand, and brought me through the 
waters ; the waters were to the knees. Again he 
measured a thousand, and brought me through ; 
the waters were to the loins. Afterward he meas- 
ured a thousand ; and it was a river that I could 
not pass over : for the waters were risen, waters to 
swim in, a river that could not be passed over. 
And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen 
this ? Then he brought me, and caused me to 
return to the brink of the river. Now, when I 
had returned, behold, at the bank of the river 
were very many trees, on the one side and on the 
other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue 
out toward the east country, and go down into the 
desert, and go into the sea : which being brought 
forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And 
it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, 



River from the Temples. 199 

Healing. Fruit not consumed. Tree of Life. 

which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, 
shall live : and there shall be a very great multi- 
tude of fish, because these waters shall come 
thither : for they shall be healed : and every thing 
shall live whither the river cometh. And by the 
river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on 
that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf 
shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be 
consumed : it shall bring forth new fruit according 
to its months, because their waters they issued out 
of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be 
for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." 
Ez. xlvii. 

The date of this document was 574 years before 
the Christian era. When this extract from the 
ancient volume had been read, another portion, 
bearing a later date by six hundred years, was 
read as follows : 

" And he showed me a pure river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne 
of God and the Lamb. In the midst of it, and on 
either side of the river, was there the tree of life 
which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded 
her fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree 
were for the healing of the nations." 

The reading of these extracts from the A^cieot 



200 Report Concluded. 

Great surprise. Testimonies. Grand chorus. 

Wonderful Book, created a profound sensation 
in the minds of all present. Some were surprised 
to learn of the existence of such a river. Others 
declared that they had heard of it, but had no ad- 
equate conception of its magnitude or of the 
quality of its waters ; while others declared that 
they had often stood by the side of this stream 
and drank of its waters, and seen how the desert 
had been made to blossom like the rose by its fer- 
tilizing influence. While these testimonies were 
being given in, the interest continued to increase, 
until the whole vast assembly, which had been 
giving their attention to the subject, were pro- 
foundly impressed with a feeling of wonder and 
amazement, and with united voices, as the " sound 
of many waters," rising to their feet, they sang : 



M Great Source of being and of love, 
Thou waterest all the worlds above ; 
And all the joys which mortals know 
From thine exhaustless fountain flow. 

A sacred stream, at thy command, 
From Zion's Mount in Canaan's land, 
Beside Thy temple cleaves the ground, 
And pours its limpid stream around. 

The limpid stream with sudden force 
Swells to a river in its course ; 
Through desert realms its windings play, 
And scatter blessings all the way. 



Report Concluded. 201 

Blooming trees. Wondrous stream. 

Close by its banks, in order fair, 
The blooming trees of life appear : 
Their blossoms fragrant odors give, 
And on their fruit the nations live. 

Flow, wondrous stream, with glory crowned, 
Flow on to earth's remotest bound, 
And bear us on thy gentle wave 
To Him who all thy virtues gave. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Border Country — A difficulty between the Fountain- 
land and Borderland Boys settled — Changes in Public 
Se7ttime?tt — Dr. Fumus and a Chewington Gentleman 
change their habits — Water introduced — Memorial 
Fountain^ etc* 




JlRECTLY upon the borders of the Black 
Valley Country lies the great Borderland 
Country, through which, multitudes find their way 
to the upper terminus of the Black Valley Rail- 
road, where they are " taken in " for their first 
excursions. Many who come from Fountainland 
into this border country, with no intention of 
going beyond, are induced by the influences of the 
place to advance farther; until at length they 
find themselves far down on the Black Valley 
Road, the customs, habits, and business of the 
place all being favorable to that result. 

The Borderland Country is divided into three 
202 



Borderland. 203 



Three sections. Great thoroughfare. Sickness. 

principal sections, called Snuffington, Puffington, 
and Chewington, each section being distinguished 
by its own peculiarities. 

The people of Snuffington find that their noses 
are set upon their faces upside down, for the prin- 
cipal purpose for which they wish to use them, 
unless they stand upon their heads. 

The Puffington people find it necessary to attach 
an artificial tube of some sort to their mouths, in 
order suitably to narcotize the air which they 
breathe, and fit it for use, while the Chewington 
people have great trouble and inconvenience and 
expense in preparing the salivary glands to act so 
as to produce a sufficient amount of spitting. 

Midway of the great plain in which the country 
is situated, is a broad thoroughfare, having a de- 
scending grade toward Sippington. Over this dry 
and smooth road, stages and coaches, omnibuses 
and private carriages, are constantly running, caus- 
ing immense clouds of dust and smoke to fill the 
air, and hang over the land like a thick fog, more 
especially as the roads are rarely sprinkled, on ac- 
count of the scarcity of water. 

These carriages are constantly loaded with 
3 r oung people, many of whom are boys, on their 
way to the Black Valley Country. During their 
first excursions, they are frequently very sick ; so 
that it is no uncommon event to see them looking 
pale and ghastly, as if they would welcome death 
as a friend if he would give them relief ; but as 



204 Borderland. 



Attaining manhood. Fountainland people complain. 

their honor is at stake, and custom makes it honor- 
able to be able to take these excursions, they 
usually persevere until the nausea ceases, when 
they reckon themselves to have attained to an hon- 
orable manhood. 

At times, the clouds of smoke which hang over 
the great thoroughfare are carried by the wind 
over large portions of the Fountainland Country, 
producing sickness and retching; so that the 
people are obliged to keep their windows closed, 
or live within doors. 

On this account, serious misunderstandings 
sometimes arise between the inhabitants of the 
two sections of country. The Fountainland peo- 
ple complain that this smoke is a nuisance, against 
which they have a right to be protected; and that 
it is uncivil on the part of the Borderland people 
to contaminate the common air with it. To this 
the Borderland people reply, The wind bloweth 
where it listeth ; and we cannot tell whence it 
cometh, or whither it goeth, with our smoke. 

In order to show them how this principle works 
when fairly carried out, the Fountainland boys, by 
the aid of some huge India-rubber bags prepared 
for the purpose, contrived to fill the whole atmos- 
phere with a nauseating gas while the wind was 
blowing toward their neighbors. 

This gas caused so much sickness among the 
Borderlanders, that they thought the black-vomit 
had broken out among them. This created great 




The President and Secretary of the Y. M. B. V. R. R., and Bor- 
derland Athletic Sporting Society, drink to the health of 
the Fountainland "bag boys," and send a challenge 
for a match trial. 




The Y. M. Fountainland Athletic Society accept the challenge of the Y. M. B. V. 

R, R., and B. A. S. Society, and propose walking across the Crystal 

River on a tight rope, standing on the head in the middle. 



Borderland. 209 



People sick. Doctor sent for. Bag boys explain. 

excitement and alarm. Many were completely 
prostrated by the feeling of distress which came 
upon them. Others fainted suddenly and fell, 
not knowing what the matter was. 

In this condition of things, retching and 
wretched, they despatched messengers to the 
Fountainland doctors to come with haste to their 
relief. Before the doctors arrived, the Fountain- 
land boys explained the whole matter; adding, 
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and we cannot 
tell whither it goeth, with our gas ; but this we 
can tell, that fresh air will soon bring relief to all 
sufferers : and promising to call it even, if they 
would hereafter keep their smoke at home, the 
matter was settled without war. 

In process of time, the custom and habits of 
Fountainland began to be introduced, to the great 
satisfaction of the mothers and daughters of the 
land. Frequent communications with the people 
of Fountainland had produced the conviction that 
the habits of the people, and the general cleanli- 
ness of the place, had contributed much to its 
healthfulness and prosperity. 

Ladies from Snuffington noticed, that while on 
their visits to Fountainland, the people stared at 
them and smiled when they indulged in their fa- 
vorite habit, and always expressed great surprise 
when invited to participate. 

The Puffington ladies discovered that their hus- 
bands and sons were always unhappy when in 



210 Borderland. 



Mereshaumers. Dr. Fumus. Stench offering. 

Fountainland ; because the customs of the place 
were such that they could not use their favorite 
fumigators without seeming to be rude. The 
Fountainland boys sometimes called them Mere- 
shaumers, always omitting the u sound in pro- 
nouncing the word. 

It is related of a distinguished clergyman of 
Puffington, Dr. Fumus, that while attending a 
religious meeting in Fountainland, and receiving 
entertainment in an elegant mansion where the 
lady of the house was known to be very adverse to 
the habits of the Puffington people, rising early in 
the morning, he prostrated himself upon the floor 
with his head in the fireplace, whose chimney car- 
ried off all smoke, where he seemed to be breath- 
ing with great difficulty. His wife, seeing him in 
this condition, was much alarmed, and exclaimed, 
" What ails you, my dear ? are you dying ? " 
Out of all patience with himself, he replied, 
" Offering a stench-offering to the devil, my dear ! " 
and immediately arose, and, crushing his fumi- 
gating tube under his heels upon the hearth, ex- 
claimed, " Get thee behind me, Satan ! thou savor- 
est not of the things of God, or of God's ambas- 
sador to men," after which, the savor of his habit 
ceased to exhale from him, to the great joy of his 
wife, and to the great advantage of the young 
men who had been much influenced by his 
example. 

It is related also of a Chewington military gen- 



Borderland. 211 



Cured by a kick. Market injured by the flood. 

tleman, whose health was failing, and whose ner- 
vous sj'stem was much deranged, that his jaw was 
one da j 7 " broken by the kick of his horse. This 
put a stop to his masticating habit for many 
months, during which time his health was com- 
pletely restored ; whereupon he rode through the 
whole district of Chewington, offering the gratui- 
tous use of the heels of his horse to all who were 
in the same bondage in which he came so near to 
dying. 

These facts, with many others which were ex- 
tensively circulated, produced a great smoke of 
excitement through the whole Borderland Country. 

Rev. Solomon Spittoon, whose influence had led 
many young men to settle down in Chewington, 
renounced his habit, and got his name changed to 
Waterman. 

In connection with the discussion of this sub- 
ject, the people learned that what they called a 
luxury, was doing them a great injury, and costing 
them more than their bread. 

After the great change in the condition of 
things in the Black Valley Country by reason of 
the flood, the people of Borderland found that the 
great market for their principal product was gone, 
as the patrons of the Black Valley Railroad were 
the principal purchasers of their staple product. 
They discovered, too, that the soil had been much 
exhausted b} r the crops which they had been tak- 
ing from it. The fertility of the Black Valley 



212 Borderland, 



Business abandoned. Health improved. Water introduced. 

Country, from the effects of irrigation, also arrested 
their attention, and rapidly brought the people to 
the conviction that their old business must be 
abandoned in order to secure the golden harvests 
which each autumn was bringing to their neigh- 
bors, whose farms had been so completely reno- 
vated by the use of water. In fine, they found 
that they were falling rapidly behind their neigh- 
bors, whose cleanly houses, and well-kept fields, 
and irrigated gardens, presented a painful contrast 
when compared with the dry, dusty, smoky, and 
filthy condition of things among themselves. 

Water began now to be popular. Those who 
drank it, found that their health was much im- 
proved; and those who used it upon their lands 
found that a blessing was in it, of more value than 
gold. 

In view of this state of things, it was resolved 
to introduce water into every part of the countay ; 
and as the water of the great Crystal Sea was 
free and abundant, and on such an elevation above 
them that a powerful pressure could be secured, it 
was resolved to construct an immense aqueduct, 
that every farm and house in the land could be 
supplied. 

It was also resolved to make a bonfire of the 
favorite plant, and to substitute a crop less injuri- 
ous to their lands, and which would be useful to 
their families and to others, and in future more 
sure of a regular sale in the market. Accordingly, 



Borderland. 213 



Fumigating instruments. Great bonfire. Improvements. 

they brought together the unsavory contents of 
their storehouses into one vast pile. Around this 
they built a circular wall out of a material com- 
posed of the crushed tubes and bowls of their fu- 
migating instruments, wrought into brick under the 
heavy hydraulic pressure which the Fountainland 
water now abundantly supplied. 

When the whole was completed, fire was set to 
the accumulated mass inside the enclosure ; and 
immediately a smoke like the smoke of a great 
furnace rose into the clear air, covering the whole 
heavens as with "blackness of darkness." 

In process of time, the cloud of smoke cleared 
away; and preparations having been previously 
made, the aqueduct from the great Crystal Sea 
was opened into the enclosure, and every house in 
the Borderland Country was supplied with an 
abundance of water from the " Memorial Foun- 
tain," now completed. 

The introduction of water produced immediately 
the anticipated results. The air, which before 
was filled with smoke, became clear and invigorat- 
ing. The streets and houses of Chewington, 
which, before the introduction of water, were 
extremely filthy, became clean. The fields, in 
their season, waved with the products of the soil, 
now made fertile by water ; and the golden har- 
vest of the autumn brought with it such crops as 
rewarded more abundantly than ever the toils of 



214 Borderland. 



Celebration. Gen. Eschewit. 

those who upon the well-watered lands prosecuted 
their easy labors, where once with faint hearts and 
foul hands, amid offensive smells, they gathered 
the crops of former days. 

When this great work was accomplished, it was 
resolved to celebrate the occasion with suitable 
commemorative services. 

General Chewit, whose horse had saved his life 
by a kick in the jaw, and who was now known as 
General Eschewit, was appointed marshal of the 
day, and, by special request, rode his favorite 
charger, whose "neck was clothed with thunder," 
and whose heels, as he had occasion to know, were 
charged with lightning, always ready to do a good 
deed wherever required. 

Hon. Mr. Drinkwater, President of the Foun- 
tainland Water Company, presided, making a 
glowing speech on the cleansing, sanitary, and 
fertilizing power of water; dwelling especially 
upon its use in Scripture as a symbol of Christian 
truth and spiritual life. Rev. Dr. Fumus offered 
prayer, in which he recognized with gratitude his 
deliverance from bondage; and Rev. Mr. Water- 
man read suitable selections of Scripture, closing 
with the words of Jesus, " But the water that I 
shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life ; " after which 
numerous congratulatory speeches were made, and 
the service brought to a close, all uniting in 
singing : 




<Vn outside meeting at the great celebration. Rev. Mr. Waterman addresses 
the Borderlanders on the cleansing, elevating and invigorating 
influence of the Crystal River Water, 



Borderland. 217 



Sacred stream. The springing well. 

" That sacred stream, Thy holy Word, 
Our grief allays, our fear controls ; 
Sweet peace thy promises afford. 

And give new strength to fainting souls." 

Ho ye that pant for living streams 

And pine away and die, 
Here you may quench your raging thirst 

With streams that never dry. 

" Sing to the springing well ! 
By captains brave the well was made 

Princes of Israel 
Their staff and sceptre were the spade 
That dug the people's well." 



Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue 
of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break 
forth, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground 
shall become a pool and the thirsty lands springs of water, 
i?i the habitation of dragons where each lay, shall be grass 
with reeds and rushes. — ISAIAH. 



EXTRACTS PROM LETTERS AND 
NOTICES. 



From the Congregationalist. 

We do not see how anything could be more complete or effective for its pur- 
pose. Not only is it a literary success, but a work in the interest of temper- 
ance and humanity — of virtue and religion ; for which, we are sure, any good 
citizen and every Christian will thank the author. Under the guise of a 
skillful allegory, it portrays the evils of intemperance, and the desolation 
wrought by the liquor traffic ; showing by what insidious steps, and under 
what plausible pleas the habit of drinking is begun and confirmed, and de- 
scribes the beginning and progress of the temperance reform, license, prohi- 
bition, etc. . . . Altogether it is a skillful argument, and powerful ap- 
peal. . . . The illustrations are striking ; indeed, everything in the volume 
is made to tell. 

From Zion's Herald. 

The wit, wisdom, humor, good sense, and piety of this volume, struggle 
together for ascendency. It isas amusing as it is instructing, and as impres- 
sive as it is ingenious. It pictures the desolation _ of intemperance vividly 
enough to raise the hair on one's head, and shows with much power the only 
true measure for the redemption of the land from this curse. 

From the Watchman and Reflector. 

It is a volume of great power, calculated to interest the old and the young. 

. . Fathers ought to place it in the hands of their sons, and the young 

who are exposed to the seducing influences of the intoxicating cup, should 

be put on their guard by this faithful exhibition of the inevitable evils of 

intoxicating drink. 

From Dr. Charles Jewett. 

Since the days of Bunyan, and his immortal work, the " Pilgrim's Progress," 
I doubt if there has ever been published an allegory calculated to contribute 
so much to the education and reformation of this drunken and sin-cursed world. 

Rev. Mortimer Blake, D. D. 

The "Black Valley " is one of those happy conceptions which rise almost to 
an inspiration. It just tells the story of the downward progress of drinking 
in a figure which everybody, even the child, can understand, and with a fas- 
cination which compels the traveller on that road to read it to the bitter end. 
The book and the illustrative picture ought to be in every Sabbath-school 
library, and in every hotel, steamboat, rail-car, and sailing-yacht, and wher- 
ever else tickets on the Black Valley Railroad are sold. 

From Pacific, San Francisco. 

A powerful argument for temperance, original in style and conception, and 
admirably adapted to interest all readers, and especially the young. It ought 
to be in the library of every child and every Sabbath-school, and all temper- 
ance organizations ought to circulate it broadcast. No temperance book is 
calculated to do better service, or to make a deeper popular impression.^ 



Letters and Notices, 



From the Advance. 
It is a book which should be in every Sunday-school library in the land — 
admirably fitted to warn old and young of the insidious and frightful " perils 
of the way" of intemperance. 

From the Home Missionary . 
We have seen no temperance document better suited to instruct, arouse, 
and alarm the public mind in reference to the evils of intemperance, than 
this volume. 

From John B. Gough. 

_ I have never seen any book or illustration that, as a vivid and poweful ex- 
hibition of truth, is at all comparable with this. Many minds cannot be 
reached by a dry argument, but this appeals to all — to the eye and the heart, 
the conscience and the common sense. It is just the thing needed to 
convince and startle. Many will read it through for its novelty and attract- 
yeness, who would not read a tract or hear a lecture, and no man can read 
it without exclaiming at every period, " that's a fact! " 

From Rev. Wm. M. Thayer, Ex-Sec. Mass. Temperance Alliance. 

One of the most fascinating and instructive temperance volumes ever pub- 
lished — a mental and moral stimulant. The Bible doctrine of temperance 
license, and prohibition, is set forth so as to compel attention, and we are not 
surprised that moderate drinkers and rumsellers are stirred up by reading it 
Every friend of temperance should have^ one to loan, and every Sabbath- 
school library should have several of them in circulation. 

From the Christian Witness and Church Advocate. 

An allegory in the style of Bunyan, but enlivened with somewhat more of 
wit and humor. We have laughed and wept over its scenes, and think it 
will do more to promote temperance on a scriptural basis, than many sermons 
and lectures, and probably more than all the prohibitory laws that have been 
enacted. It should be in every Sunday-school and household. 

From tJie Temperance Press. 

It presents, in a way that cannot fail to arrest attention, the terrible results 
of the liquor traffic, and the folly of the habit of using intoxicating drink, 
should be in every family and Sabbath-school, and in the hands of every 
young man. 

From A dvocate of Peace. 

Most happily conceived and executed. Its perusal will afford sincere de- 
light to thousands of readers. It is not too much to hope that, by the blessing 
of God, it will prove a most effective instrumentality for preventing the evils 
of intemperance. 

From the Guardian of Health. 

The book will be read by millions. It advocates prohibition and moral sua- 
sion, and shows that the church is the source whence must flow the influ- 
ence which is to sweep away this curse of curses. 

From Prof. G. N" Webber, Middlebury College. 

The most readable and effective book on temperance that has been pub- 
lshed in these latter days. 

Rev. S H. Hayes, Seamen's Chapel, Bosto" . 

The best thing on the subject in the language. It is capital for Sabbath- 
school superintendents and ministers, each chapter furnishing precisely the 
picture and the point for a lecture. 



Map of the Black Valley Country, Showing 

the Route and Principal Places on the 

Black Valley Railroad. 



This allegorical map or picture (a Colored Lithograph, 18 by 
24), is designed to impress upon the mind, through the eye, the 
teachings of the Bible concerning the use of intoxicating drink. 
In Reading Rooms, Depots, Shops, Schools and Families, it 
becomes a silent preacher, setting forth its lessons of warning. 
Price on roller, ready for hanging up, 50 cts. Forwarded by 
mail. 

First Centennial- Report of the Black Valley Railroad, A 20 
page Temperance Manual, setting forth the Financial, Scrip- 
tural and Physiological reasons for Temperance. It contains 
facts and statistics from the official Reports of the Government, 
showing the frightful magnitude of the Liquor Traffic compared 
with other branches of business, and as being the great waster 
of the National resources also the Sewall Diagrams showing the 
intenal condition of Travellers on the Black Valley Rail- 
road. Price 10 cts. 

I thank you for the Black Valley Railroad It is of great value to the tem- 
perance cause; just the thing for children and youth.— Late Hon. Henry 
Wilson. 

The power which your Danteau picture of the Black Valley Railroad has 
over me when first I saw it, years ago, has^ steadily increased. ... I be- 
lieve the picture is a part of the indestructible mental furniture of thousands: 
It ought to be disseminated as widely as the evils which it represents with so 
much genius. — Rev. Joseph Cook, Boston. 

You have struck upon a rich vein in your " Black Valley Railroad." There 
is ingenuity — I had almost said, genius— enough in it to immortalize the au- 
thor. — Prof. IVm. S. Tyler, Amherst College. 

Admirably adapted to remind the observer of the terrible consequences of 
intemperance, and thus to aid the great cause of total abstinence, especially 
for schools among the freed people of the South, Sabbath-schools, etc. — 
Major Gen. O. O. Howard. 

A masterpiece of ingenuity, and presents a bird's eye view of the track of 
hat fearful road in a wonderfully impressive manner. You have done a val- 

218 , 



Letters and Notices. 



uable service to humanity in the vivid illustration you have given of the fear- 
ful consequences to life and health, to morals and wealth, that come upon 
those who travel that road. — Late Hon. A masa Walker , Lecturer on Po- 
litical Economy, Amherst College. 

It is a masterly exhibition to the eye of the evils of strong drink, and will 
make an impression upon the young never to be effaced. It is the best tem- 
perance sermon I know of. — From Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.U. % Pastor of 
the Pilgrim Churchy St. Louis. 

I regard the picture of the Black Valley Railroad as the most powerful ar- 
gument against intemperance. Its ingenuity and force are inimitable. — From 
Rev. F. Johnson, D.D., Pastor of the Baptist Church, Cambridge, Mass. 

One of the most truthful allegorical pictures ever printed. It represents the 
way to ruin in as vivid colors as does Bunyan portray in words the path of 
Christians from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Both are pre- 
gressive — the one upward, the other downward. ... It is intended, by pre- 
senting a truthtul picture of the downward tendency of vice and its fearful and 
awful results, to deter the young from entering the paths of the destroyer. 
Could children see and understand this picture, and seeing is understanding, 
but few would risk their lives and souls upon such a dreadful career. Hung 
in the school-room, to be seen daily by the children, it would do more good 
than many temperance lectures, however eloquently presented. Friendly ad- 
vice is sometimes forgotten, but the picture never fades from the memory of a 
child. The heart may become hard, but this is an image painted on the soul 
which cannot easily be effaced. This picture shows to the inebriate where he 
is and his means of escape. He may read volumes at a glance in this wonder- 
ful scene. _A man must be hard indeed who would pursue the fatal course 
when once it has been so vividly portrayed. We recommend this .picture to 
our teacher friends as a most valuable aid in establishing good morals and cor- 
rect habits in the minds of the young. — The Rhode Island School Master. 

We wish that on the walls of each Sabbath-school were hung up the pow- 
erful and terrific picture, the Black Valley Railroad, which maps out the 
whole tour of the tippler from Sippington to Topersvile, clear on to Demon- 
land.— Rev. T. L. Cuyler. D.D. 

Probably the most successful temperance lecture in the country is the pic- 
ture of the^ Black Valley Railroad. Not a few young men who have been co- 
quetting with the intoxicating cup have shuddered and drawn back as they 
looked upon . this representation of the drunkard's course. ' The wheels of 
the distillery red with the blood of its victims, the demons welcoming the 
train to its last station, Destruction, the darkness of ^ the Black Valley, the 
enormous serpents in the path, the strong walls of Prisonton, all tend to fix 
firmly in the mind the terrors and dangers of intemperance. If a copy of it 
had a place in every household, it would do much to keep young men from 
the first step in the drunkard's career. — Free Press, Northampton, Mass. 

" A happy conception. Catches the eye and arrests attention, and must 
awaken thought. I hope it will be widely circulated."- Prof. S. Harris , 
D.D., Yale College. 

" Excellent ! I hope it will be scattered wherever English can be under- 
stood." — Prof. A . PhelpSfAndover, Mass. 

I am fully impressed with the belief that it must be of great service in im- 
pressing upon young people the great danger of using strongdrink. — Prof. E. 
Hitchcock, A mherst College. 
219 



WORD PICTURES. Thoughts and Descriptions from Popu- 
lar Authors. Boston : D. Lothrop & Co. Illustrated, Price 
$1.75.-- Gilt edges, $2.00. 

This volume is inscribed by the author to " the Memory of My Beloved 
Mother, Margaret Guthrie Strohm, and of the happy days when we read to- 
gether." A note of acknowledgment to the authors and the publishers rep- 
resented, answers as a preface to this compilation. One hundred authors are 
quoted, among whom many are well-known to all, as Grace Aguilar, Louisa 
M. Alcott, Charlotte Bronte, Bulwer, Dickens, Disraeli, Amanda M. Doug- 
lass, Edward Everett Hale, Hawthorne, Victor Hugo, Jean Ingelow, Eliza- 
beth Stuart Phelps, Charles Reade, Mrs. Stowe, and Bayard Taylor. There 
is no lack of deep meanings in this collection, and of course all the popular 
authors could not be represented in a small volume. Forty-two pages of the 
three hundred and fifteen are devoted to various subjects under the title 
" Thoughts." The remaining pages are classed " Descriptions and Scenes." 
Some selections seem to be chosen to illustrate certain styles of picturesque 
narrative and are allotted several pages, while others are terse enough to be 
contained in a few lines. Dickens is awarded the first place, and the open- 
ing thoughts are concerning " children." " I love these little people ; and it 
is not a slight thing when they who are so fresh from God love us." 

Here is something for the educators of women, by George MacDonald : 
" Men like women to reflect them ; but the woman who can only reflect a 
man and is nothing in herself will never be of much service to him." 

This is a picture, sure enough, from Mrs. Whitney : " She was like a 
breeze that set everything fluttering, and left the whole house freshened after 
she had passed on." 

Here some " Words of Truth," by Miss Alcott, bear profound philosophy. 
"It is an excellent plan to have some place where we can go to be quiet 
when things vex or grieve us. There are a good many hard times in this life 
of ours, but we can always bear them if we ask help in the right way." 

One more selection from the short speeches must suffice: "No life is all 
sunshine, nor was it so intended. And yet I think God doesn't mean us to 
fear the future. We are to take up daily events with hopeful hrarts and shape 
them into a higher form than crude fragments." 

Such a book is invaluable in its influence on young people who are just 
forming their ideas of life. Many of the longer sketches are convenient to 
take up when one feels like reading, but cannot endure a continuous effort 
of the mind. A sick person, on recovering enough to be entertained with 
short readings, would be greatly delighted by judicious use of this attractive 
kind of medicine for the mind- — The Liberal Christian. 



THE PULPIT OP THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

" We would advise every man or woman to read, mark, 
learn, and inwardly digest, the patriotic sentiments flowing 
in the sermons ot The Pulpit of the American 
Revolution, and in the valuable illustrative annotations 
of its Editor, and to this wholesome repast we leave them 
with the benediction of the royal host of Scotland, that 
4 good digestion ' may ' wait on appetite, and health on 
both.' M — N. A. and U. S. Gazette, Philadelphia. 

" This excellent book." — Bibliotheca Sacra. 

E. A. Parks, D. D. 

" The ministers of that day probably contributed more 
than almost any other class of men to secure us the bless- 
ings of civil liberty. The moral force that achieved our 
Independence lay chiefly in the Puritan pulpit of that pe- 
riod. If any one is disposed to doubt this, let him read 
this interesting volume of sermons, together with the In- 
troduction and Notes, by Mr. Thornton, and his doubt 
will vanish. The work is enriched with a fine portrait of 
Johnathan Mayhew, and a copy of a curious old print, 
entitled, ■ An Attempt to Land a Bishop in America, ' 
which forcibly exhibits the pressure of the times. We com- 
mend also the Editor's good sense and good taste in pre- 
serving the fac-similes of the old title-pages, which add 
considerably to the interest of the volume." — Knicker- 
bocker. 

" The editorial work has been performed with abundant 
care and labor, and with a hearty interest in the sermons 
themselves, and in the times to which they belonged, which 
spreads a glow over the entire volume. The whole volume 
indeed merits the study of the Christian patriot." — Chris- 
tian Reinew. 

" It proves how great a power the Puritan pulpit 
was then in New England, how eagerly and effectually it 
lifted up its voice in unison with the voice of popular assem- 



THE PULPIT OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

olutionary history and our heroic age. We commend its 
well-filled and copious pages to all who are seeking knowl- 
edge in that direction, or wish to revive the recollections 
and facts of former study." — William Willis. 

" Mr. Thornton has, in one way or another, pressed into 
the service all the principal actors in the drama of the 
Revolution, both here and abroad, so that his book, though 
professedly giving a glimpse at the Pulpit of the Revolution, 
in fact gives us an insight into the Revolution itself, its 
causes and its consequences. It is a rare contribution to 
revolutionary history, for its fund of information, anecdote 
and philosophy ol history, contained in the notes and intro- 
ductory and prefatory remarks of its Editor." — Tran- 
scrpt. Charles W. Upham. 

" Worthy a place in every American library, public or 
private. Mr. Thornton, the Editor, has supplied an histor- 
ical introduction, full of curious and interesting matter, and 
has also given a special preface to each sermon, with notes 
explaining all those allusions in the text which might puz- 
zle an ordinary reader of the present day. His annotations 
have not only the value which comes from patient research, 
but the charm which proceeds from living partisanship. 
He transports himself to the times about which he writes, 
and almost seems to have listened to the sermons he now 
comes prepared to illustrate The topics relating to 'non- 
resistance to the higher powers/ which Macaulay treats 
with such wealth of statement, argument, and illustration, 
in his ■ History of England,' are in this sermon discussed 
with equal earnestness, energy, brilliancy, fullness, and in- 
dependence of thought. In the power to inform the peo- 
ple of their rights and teach them their duties we would be 
willing to pit one Mayhew against a score of Cushings and 
Rhets. of Shidells and Yancey s." — Atlantic Monthly. 

E. P. Whipple. 



CHOICE BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 



SUGAR PLUMS By Ella Farman. Small quarto. Fully 

illustrated 75 

A book of u Sweets." Songs and pictures that will capture the children 
at once. 

CHILDREN'S PICTURE STORY BOOK (The). By 

Laurie Loring. 16mo. 175 full-page illustrations . 1 50 

PICTURES FOR OUR DARLINGS. A delightful book of 
choice pictures and short stories in large type, by 
favorite American Authors and artists. 4to. Printed 
on heavy calendered paper 1 25 

HOLIDAY ALBUM (The), for Boys. 88 full-page illus- 
trations. Large 16nio, tinted paper . . . . 1 00 

HOLIDAY ALBUM (The), for Girls. 88 full-page illus- 
trations. Large 16mo, tinted paper . . . . 1 00 

SONGS FOR LITTLE FOLKS. Containing the most 
iamiliar and popular Songs for the Little Ones, and 
60 full-page illustrations. 16mo. Illustrated . . 75 

LITTLE FOLKS PICTURE GALLERY. A large print 

Picture Scroll for the Nursery, on a stick, to hang up . 75 

TORN AND MENDED. A Christmas story. By Wm. 

M. F. Round. 16mo. Cloth. Quarto . . . 1 00 

The book is not one to be put aside when once begun. " God's love shin- 
eth though all " is its motto. — The Contributor* 

LITTLE THREE-YEAR OLD. By Mrs. C. E. K. Davis. 

Holiday edition. Quarto. Fully illustrated . . . 1 25 

LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE. By Charlotte 
M. Yonge. 23 Full-page Illustrations. Holiday edition. 
Quarto 1 25 

This is a very pretty and useful gift book for young folks. It is a story of 
geography and history all in one, and a picture gallery besides. 

LITLLE FLOY. By Mrs. F. B. Smith. Square 16mo 

Illustrated, with colored Frontispiece .... 50 

PARLOR PASTIMES AND PICTURE PUZZLES. By 

G. B. Bartleit, and others. Large quarto ... 50 

A collection of parlor and school-room dramas, pantomimes, tableaux and 
charades. 

PICTURES AND SONGS FOR THE LITTLE ONES 

18mo 25 

With a beautiful binding, contains thirty full-page illustrations, and the 
most familiar and favorite songs for the little ones. 



NEW AND VERY ELEGANT 

GIFT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. 



MOTHER'S BOYS AND GIRLS. Pansy's delight- 
ful New Picture Story Book, in extra 
(In boards, I 25) cloth binding 175 

SUNSHINE FOR BABYLAND. Enlarged. In ex- 
(In boards, 1 25) tra cloth. Black and Gold, . . . . 1 75 

LITTLE PEOPLE IN PICTURE AND STORY. 

(In boards, 1 00) By Pansy. Full cloth. Extra. 1 50 

OUR DARLINGS. What they Think, Say and Do. 

Extra cloth 1 50 

A companion volume to " Little People." 

POEMS FOR OUR DARLINGS. Large quarto. 1 25 
A companion volume to " Pictures for our Darlings." 

VACATION STORIES, for Boys. ) Companion 

v volumes, 
VACATION STORIES, for Girls. ) $1 each. 

HAPPY HOURS, for Boys. ) Companion 

V volumes, 

HAPPY HOURS, for Girls. ) $1 each. 

BABY'S PICTURE ALBUM. A cunning book of 
180 pages, with a Beautiful Picture on every leaf. . . . 75 

MY BEAUTIFUL PICTURE BOOK. Very large 
Pictures, with very large print Stories. Quarto. ... 1 00 

LIFE AND HABITS OF WILD ANIMALS. 
Large Quarto, with Twenty very fine full-page Pictures. 2 00 

PANSY'S PICTURE BOOK. Quarto. Full cloth. 200 
Quarto. , Gilt edges. .. f ...,...,,, 2 25 

Boston : D. LOTHROP & CO., Publishers. 



Popular Books by "Pansy." 

ESTER RIED $i. 5 o 

JULIA RIED 1.50 

THREE PEOPLE « 1.50 

"HE KING'S DAUGHTER 1.50 

WISE AND OTHERWISE ljo 

TIP LEWIS AND HIS LAMP 1.50 

HOUSEHOLD PUZZLES 1.50 

THE RANDOLPHS 1.50 

FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA 1.50 

CHAUTAUQUA GIRLS AT HOME x. 5 o 

LINKS IN REBECCA'S LIFE I#5 o 

CUNNING WORKMEN. L25 

GRANDPA'S DARLINGS L25 

MISS PRISCILLA HUNTER. Paper covers 50c. ) . . . A , 

MY DAUGHTER SUSAN. « « 5 » | ^ one vol. cloth x.25 

JESSIE WELLS 75 

DOCIA'S JOURNAL 75 

BERNIE'S WHITE CHICKEN, to which is added "The Diamond Bracelet" .75 

HELEN LESTER ; to which is added " Nannie's Experiment " 75 

SIX LITTLE GIRLS 75 

TWO BOYS.. 75 

GETTING AHEAD 75 

PANSIES 75 

A CHRISTMAS TIME 15 

LITTLE PANSY SERIES. 10 vols : 400 

BY " PANSY AND FAYE HUNTINGTON." 

MODERN PROPHETS 1.50 

FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 1.50 

DR. DEANE'S WAY x.25 

BY "FAYE HUNTINGTON." 

THOSE BOYS 1.50 

ECHOING AND RE-ECHOING 1.50 

MRS. DEANE'S WAY 1.25 

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PANSY'S PICTURE BOOK. Extra cloth 2.00 

Gilt edges ■ . . 2.25 

MOTHERS BOYS AND GIRLS. Extra cloth 1.75 

Chromo board covers - 1.25 

SIDNEY MARTIN'S CHRISTMAS AND OTHER STORIES . 1.50 

OUR DARLINGS. What they think, say, and do. Extra cloth . . . 1.50 

Chromo board covers 1.00 

LITTLE PEOPLE. In picture and story. Extra cloth ..... 1.50 

Chromo board covers -••.••••••. x.oo 



